Promises
by Sapphire Phantom
Summary: Adam's sister comes to New York to visit, and the team takes to her. However, that's easily threatened when several crimes occur, and almost all of them have a connection to her in some way. The team needs choose to believe her or the evidence. FlackOC
1. You Haven't Eaten Yet

**a/n: I don't own CSI: NY. What I do own is what you don't recognize. Enjoy.**

It was about halfway through November and it was freezing in New York City. Danny Messer, Don Flack and Adam Ross were walking down the street a couple of blocks from the crime lab together. Well, more likely Don and Danny were walking together. Adam was quite a few paces behind, complaining about the cold. He was in a heavy winter jacket. A hat was tugged over his head as far as it could go, and he had wrapped a scarf over most of his face as well. The get-up earned him a few strange looks from passersby, mostly because the two other men he was with were just in long wool coats. Danny had brought up "The Dark Knight", and now all three of them were arguing about who made the best Joker.

"Heath Ledger, man! No one could beat that!" Adam called, waving his arms up and down, nearly hitting someone that they were passing in the process. He quickly apologized and ran to catch up to the other two.

Danny shook his head. "No. Just no. Nicholson is _the_ Joker. Ledger came close, but didn't beat him. Besides, now that I think of it, aren't you more of a Mark Hamill kinda guy?" Danny asked.

"Who cares? Cesar Romero takes the cake no matter what. I mean, he made the Joker what he is today," Don shrugged.

"No he didn't," Adam and Danny argued.

"Hell yeah, he did!"

The three men turned and saw a woman with dirty blonde hair smiling at them. Danny and Don were about to ask whom she was when Adam suddenly grinned and launched himself at her. "ROBBIE!" he hugged her, picking her up in the process.

The woman laughed. "Easy, Adam,"

"Uh…" Danny and Don blinked.

Adam finally pulled away, but still held her arms. "What are you doin' here so early, Rob? I thought you were supposed to get here tonight!"

Don and Danny exchanged looks again. "Girlfriend?" they mouthed to each other and looked back at the other two, curious to see if they were right, getting more curious since the hug didn't seem to be anything more than friendly.

"I decided to get here early. I got a train in yesterday and stayed with Jen and Amber," she replied. "I was on my way over to the lab to surprise you, but this works too. I guess you guys got off early, huh?"

"Yeah. This is even better, anyway. Come on, I have a couple of people I want you to meet," he took her hand and brought her over to the two other men. "Guys, meet my sister, Robbie,"

Danny smiled, offering his hand. "Hi. I'm Danny. Robbie, huh? Short for Robin or Roberta or somethin'?"

'Robbie' smiled. "Yeah, it's Robin," she shook his hand.

Danny nodded. "Nice to met ya,"

"Likewise," Robin smiled back at him. She looked at Don, who was just staring at her. He seemed familiar to her for some reason. "Do I know you?"

Don nodded. "Damn right, you know me! You're one of the bitches who cut me off on line for coffee yesterday!"

"Hey!" Adam objected. "What do you think you're doing calling my sister a bitch?!"

Robin's jaw dropped and eyes widened, taken by complete surprise. "What?! I uh… when…?" she sputtered.

Don glared at Robin, not really paying attention to Adam. However, his glare didn't last long. Soon a grin spread across his face and he laughed. "I'm just kiddin'. Well, your friends really did cut me off, but you caught the mistake and let me go in front of you. Now do you remember me?" he asked her, still with a smile.

It grew when Robin's look of total shock faded and was replaced by a half confused, half relieved one. "ARE YOU SHITING ME?!" She yelled. "If I hadn't literally just met you I'd smack you! You're freaking lucky I _do_ remember that!"

Don snickered.

Robin crossed her arms over her chest and sighed, letting herself calm down. After a while, she spoke up, calmer this time. "Yeah. I thought you looked familiar. I'm really sorry about that. They usually aren't that desperate to get coffee, ya know?"

Adam raised an eyebrow.

Don chuckled. "It's fine. The coffee sucked, either way," he replied, then offered his hand, just as Danny had. "Don Flack,"

Robin laughed and shook his hand. "As you heard, Robin… and how would you know what crap tastes like?"

"You don't wanna know," Don shook his head.

Satisfied that everything was actually all right, Adam nodded. "Come get coffee with us, Sis! It'll be fun and you'll get to know who I work with,"

"Sounds good. Like I said, I was gonna spend the next hour or so catching up, so that works," she looked at Danny and Don. "Do you guys mind?"

"No. We just got off work, anyway. By all means," Danny put his hands in his pockets.

"What he said," Don agreed, already starting to walk. The three of them followed him until they reached Frank's Café and went inside. They soon decided to stay there for a while instead of taking it on the go then going separate ways in taxis, so they moved to a different area and found a booth. Danny and Adam took one side of the booth and Don let Robin slide in before he sat beside her on the other side.

A thin, redheaded waitress with an almost annoyingly bright smile walked up to them. "Hello, there. Can I help you handsome boys and very lucky lady?"

Danny laughed. "I'll take a regular latte, please,"

"Hazelnut coffee," Adam added.

"Black coffee," Don nodded.

"Same as him," Robin jerked her head in Don's direction.

"Alrighty, that's an easy order. I'll be right back," the waitress left.

Don chuckled, then looked at Robin. "Black coffee for you? That's brave for a woman,"

"What did you expect me to ask for? An iced coffee with caramel? Sure I enjoy those, but it's more fun being adventurous,"

Don raised his eyebrows. "I like you already,"

Robin laughed.

Danny also smiled. "So, who's the older of you two?"

Robin raised her hand.

Danny's eyes widened. "And a girl who's not afraid to admit she's the older sibling? Are we on Earth any more?"

Robin pointed at him. "Hey, I said I was _older_, I didn't admit that I was _old_,"

Danny put his hands up. "Hallelujah, we're still home,"

Robin smirked. "How would you know? Maybe we're in some crazy parallel dimension somewhere where all women are tough because they've been trained by the leaders of the dimension: The entire Ross family,"

"OH!" Adam clapped, then held up his knuckles. "Pound it!"

Robin smirked and hit his knuckles with her own, then they slapped five, then clicked their tongues. "What up?" they said simultaneously.

Danny laughed. "So that's where you get it,"

Adam nodded. "You bet. That's ages old but never really _gets_ old,"

"No one would ever think so," Danny replied.

Don looked at Robin. "So what brings you to New York, Robin?"

"Robbie, please, and just a visit in general. Gotta make sure my brother hasn't gotten into any trouble lately," she flicked Adam's ear and grinned evilly when he jerked away and glared at her playfully. "You haven't, have you?" she looked at Danny and Don. "…Has he?"

"Well, not really… but you may wanna kill him when you see his apartment," Danny shrugged.

Adam sunk lower in his seat. "I was gonna clean before you got here," he mumbled. "…And get some decent food,"

Robin laughed. "It's not like all you have is pizza, burgers, chips and other crap like that, right?"

Adam sunk lower, casting a glance at the waitress since she came back with their drinks and set them in front of their respective owners.

Robin paused and the other men exchanged looks, waiting for her to go on some total health rant, but were surprised when she burst out laughing. "You haven't changed, A-Ross,"

Adam sat up a little bit, a look relief spreading on his face at the use of her nickname for him that she used when she was in a very good mood.

Robin smirked. "I'm not Mom, man. I could care less. All Amber and Jen had were those really crappy health meals that you order over the phone that are like two spoonfuls of food and that's it. I _need_ junk food after that,"

Danny went wide-eyed again and put the spoon he had been stirring his latte with. "Why can't there be more women like you?!" he demanded.

"What about Lindsay?" Robin inquired.

Danny raised an eyebrow. "How'd you…?"

Robin pointed at her brother.

Danny glanced at Adam, who shrugged. He looked back at her. "Yeah, she's an amazing girl and she's tough in her own right, but you admit to being older, you drink black coffee, next thing we're gonna hear is you like football,"

Adam and Robin snorted.

Danny gaped at her. "You do,"

Robin nodded slowly.

"What team?" Don asked.

"Miami Dolphins. They have their ups and downs, but hey, they're better than the Jets at times,"

Don and Danny both looked at Adam and pointed at Robin. "Why have you been hiding her from us?!"

Adam paused. "I haven't really, I've mentioned her before!"

"Do tell," his three companions requested.

Adam took in a breath. He had really just mentioned her rhetorically a few times, so he knew he was in for it. Something told him that it was going to be a very long day. He started rambling on just as he usually did, mentioning several stories that he could think of that involved Robin, and to his surprise, the men had actually heard them, and Robin got more and more red with embarrassment as the stories went on, like when their old dog Desoto had somehow gotten into her room once and gotten into her underwear drawer and had dragged every article in it around the house. Needless to say, when they four were done, Adam had to run out of the building to get away from Robin, who was dead set on beating the crap out of him. She had managed to catch up with him and tackle him to the ground when they had reached a small park, but before she could do any real damage, Danny and Don had pulled her off of him.

"As much as I wanna see this and I'm sure Messer wants see this, I'm not in the mood to pick up little pieces of Adam," Don told her.

"Yeah, we just got off work. We're not going back on," Danny nodded.

"Exactly," Don agreed. "Kill him in the morning when he and I are unconscious,"

"YOU'RE GIVING HER IDEAS?!" Adam objected.

"Yes they are, and I'm taking them into consideration," Robin took one of his arms in her hand and helped him up . "Sleep with one eye open,"

"Hm," Adam nodded, shifting in between Don and Danny for protection.

Don grinned at the blonde evilly, then looked back at Robin. "So, you've had coffee. You hungry yet?"

"Not really. I've ate already, like I said,"

"Not in New York, you haven't," Don shook his head.

"I told you about the crap-food stuff with my friends, right?"

Don shook his head. "Sure, you've eaten here already, but you haven't really eaten in New York yet… as far as I know,"

Robin leaned towards Adam. "… Is he usually this strange?"

"Not at all," Adam replied.

Don smirked again. "My treat. Be right back," he trotted off across the street.

The Ross siblings watched him until he disappeared in the crowd, then looked at Danny, who shrugged. "Don't look at me,"

Don came back a couple of minutes later holding something that was wrapped up. "Now, if you've only been around Adam, I know you haven't had one of these," he unwrapped it. "Didn't know what you like on it, so it's plain, but still,"

Robin finally got a good look at it and realized it was a hot dog. "Are you kidding me? Is that from one of the vendors or something? I've heard rumors about these…"

"Trust me," Don reassured her.

Robin paused then took a bite, then started at him. "Holy crap, these things are amazing!"

Don nodded. "Toldja,"

Adam sighed. "And now we're gonna have to find a vendor for lunch and dinner every day she's here,"

"I'll pay for it, I don't care," Robin replied, going to town on the hot dog.

"Good. You're paying for both of us then," Adam told her.

"Whatever works," Robin nodded, then pointed at Don. "You are my new best friend,"

Danny turned to Adam and put his hands on his shoulders. "God help you, man,"

Adam merely grunted a bit before leading the others down the street yet again.


	2. Siblings in Action

**A/N: Thanks to shane vanson, mjels, 4ever Optimistic, and babygurl1944 for the reviews. I don't own CSI: NY, yada yada yada, enjoy.**

Don was heading up to the floor of the crime lab Mac was on. Minutes before, he had to get into an all out fistfight with a suspect of a murder who had run. He had eventually gotten the suspect under control and got one of his men to shove him into a squad car, but he was still pissed. He was surprised, but at the same time it cheered him up seeing Robin leaning on the wall opposite one of the walls. Curious as to why she was on the floor below Adam's lab, he walked over to her. "Hot Dog Girl!" he waved.

She looked up at him. "New Best Friend," she greeted.

Flack nodded. "What are you doing down here? Your brother's a-"

"Floor up, yeah, I know. I got a visitor's pass and everything, but that woman behind the desk said I couldn't go up without an escort on that floor,"

Don blinked. "Yeah you can,"

Robin shrugged. "Talk to her," she motioned at the receptionist.

Don looked over and saw the woman she pointed to was Stephanie, the receptionist that he couldn't stand and vice versa. "Yeah. Go figure. Come on, I'm your 'escort' then," he nudged her back with the tips of his fingertips, steering her towards the elevator. He waved at Stephanie, who merely rolled her eyes. They got inside and it started going up. After a small silence, Don spoke up. "Sorry, what was your name again?"

Robin laughed. "Thank God, I'm not alone. Now I don't feel bad. Robin. Sorry, I forgot yours, too…"

"Don," Don replied with a smile of his own. " I'm never good with names unless they're colleagues or suspects on the other side of the interrogation table, ya know?" he paused. "… I guess you wouldn't, but…"

Robin put her hands up. "No worries, I do," she looked forward when the elevator doors opened and laughed, seeing Adam on the other side, pacing.

Adam only seemed to notice Don at first. "Flack! Flack, did you see Robin down there? I forgot Steph is in one of her moods where she doesn't let anyone up, and I told Robin to met me up here a few minutes before I got off work. I was gonna meet her down there and got caught up so I'm late and now she's gonna kill me and be-"

"Right next to me?" Don smirked.

Adam looked to Don's right and looked relieved, seeing Robin. "Oh! Robbie, you're here!"

Robin laughed and stepped out, followed by Don. She folded her arms and put them on Adam's shoulder. "And I won't kill you… yet,"

Adam snickered a bit.

" 'Yet'?" Don raised an eyebrow.

Robin looked at Adam. "Family Reunion '98?"

"Yup," Adam nodded, then looked at Don when he looked even more confused. "Our folks had a family reunion in '98 and we have a big family, so there were a lot of people coming, so I was stuck in her room, splitting her bed with her. I was sixteen and she was eighteen, so needless to say it was totally mortifying and we were pissed, so we fought over our own sides a lot that week,"

"I ended up shoving him outta the bed at one point and he landed on his leg, breaking it," Robin admitted, crossing her arms over her chest and rocking back and forth from heel to toe.

Don's jaw dropped, feeling Adam's pain. He looked at Adam to hear his side or more details on hers.

"Yeah, well, I sprained her leg," Adam said proudly with a shrug.

Don blinked. "You have a messed up family. Now, where's Mac?"

Adam laughed and nodded. "Ain't that the truth, and he's-"

"Adam, who's this?"

Adam closed his eyes. "Right behind me," he turned and sent the man behind him his most innocent smile possible. "Mac, my sister Robin. Robin, my boss, Mac Taylor,"

Mac Taylor nodded and shook her hand. "Ah. I was wondering when I'd meet the 'Normal Ross Sibling',"

Robin smiled. "Depends what you call normal, Mr. Taylor,"

A small smile graced Mac's face. "Ah. I like that,"

Robin nodded. "And I love your name. Mac. Can you go wrong with a guy named Mac?" She paused. "…I swear I'm not kissing up so you go lightly on this one," she pulled Adam against her side.

Mac chuckled. "Well, enjoy your time together. Now, if you'll excuse us, it's Flack and I have to put some finishing touches on one of our cases,"

"Don't let us keep you," Robin waved her hand.

Don and Mac nodded a farewell, then turned and left.

Robin let out a breath that she didn't realize she was actually holding. "You're right, he is scary,"

"Toldja," Adam shot back, mostly playfully, then went to a more serious note. "So, how's Ma?"

Robin smiled. "You don't waste time, do you?"

Adam shrugged. "Hey, I'm worried about her. I know you are too. I mean, even if the marriage fell apart years ago, Dad just blew his brains out three days ago, Robbie. You know just as well as I do that she still had some feelings for him, and Aunt Clara dying a couple of months ago doesn't help,"

"I know. She's fine, though. Really. I think me being with her helped her out, though. Now she wants to see you, too,"

"I will when we go down there Christmas week,"

Robin gasped and poked his chest. "You are evil, Adam Michael Ross,"

Adam smirked, then poked her forehead. "And you're pushy, Robin Jean Ross,"

Robin stuck her tongue out at him.

Adam laughed. "Aww, come here," he hugged her. "Alright. Just hang tight for a bit, 'kay? I gotta finish here, too, and I'll be right with ya,"

"Gotcha," Robin spotted a seat and sat down, looking around at the place that Adam had described so fondly. He was right about the people he worked with, well, at least two of them, since she wasn't so sure about Mac now, and how he had described the place itself did justice to it. She had just gotten comfortable when a female voice caught her attention.

"Hi. Can I help you?"

Robin looked over, seeing a tan skinned, brunette woman looking down at her. "Oh, uh, no thank you. I'm waiting for my brother, Ad-"

"Adam! You're Robin!"

Robin sat up. "Uh… yeah," she blinked, then realization hit her. "Adam told you about me today, didn't he?"

The woman laughed. "Actually, no. He's mentioned you before… at least to me, and you look like him, so I figured it must be… well, you. I'm Stella Bonasera,"

"Robin Ross," she shook Stella's hand. "I've heard quite a bit about you, myself,"

"I deny everything," Stella laughed.

Robin smiled back. "No, I think it's Danny that should be denying everything, really,"

Stella laughed. "Oh, you've met him?"

"Yeah, he and Don were with Adam when I ran into them yesterday," Robin nodded, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Oh, Flack too, hm?"

Robin paused, trying to recall Don's last name. "Yeah… Flack, right,"

Stella nodded. "Well, we're all getting off shift, so I'll let you go. I'm sure Adam's coming now…"

"Right you are, Stel-LA!" the last part was yelled because Adam had taken a running start at them, then slid the rest of the way, only to have his foot catch one of the desk's legs so he ended up faceplanting.

"Ooh!" both girls hissed, helping him up.

Adam pointed up when he got to his feet. "I'm okay, I'm alright!" he nearly fell over again, but the girls caught him.

"Has he always been like this?" Stella asked, laughing. " Because this is a typical experience for him, these days,"

"Oh, trust me. As a kid, too," Robin nodded.

"Worse as a kid, really," Adam agreed, shaking his head to get rid of the starts blurring his vision.

Robin laughed. "True… you okay?"

Adam nodded. "Fine now. Why are you always so protective?"

"Why do you always give me a reason to be protective?" Robin smirked.

Stella laughed. "I love siblings interacting,"

Adam looped his arm around Robin's waist and she put her hands on his shoulder closest to her and made an identical hum, trying to look completely innocent yet again.

Stella shook her head. "You guys go enjoy yourselves. I left my bag in your lab, Adam,"

"Not the best place to leave it, is it, Stella?" Adam asked.

"Not the best idea to distract a woman enough to leave her back somewhere, is it, Adam?"

"Touché," Adam raised his eyebrows and nodded.

Stella winked and headed for Adam's lab.

Robin chuckled and shook her head.

Adam glanced at her. "What?"

"You're all a big, dysfunctional family. I like that. It's like home all over again,"

"Yeah," Adam agreed, then sighed. "Alright, you came here 'cause ma told us to get a list of relatives to send letters about dad too, so let's go get started… and have food. I need food,"

Robin laughed. "After you,"

They headed for the elevator again.

--

Meanwhile:

A tall, thin man watched as another made his way into an alley to get to a jeep parked on the other side. He laughed to himself. "People never learn," he murmured before glancing at the glock at his side. He smirked even more, then put the hood of his sweatshirt up so it shadowed his eyes. He looked around, making sure nobody was there to see anything, then trotted across the street and into the alley after the man he had been following. When he saw the man had made it to his car, he slowed down, then when the man was at his car's trunk, he leaned on the wall. "I thought we had an agreement, Porter,"

Porter jumped slightly, then looked up. " X, I had it planned, but that girl and her friends… they were there… I couldn't…"

'X' let out a bitter, emotionless laugh. He called himself X to Porter to install more fear in the already terrified man "You didn't have the guts, you mean,"

Porter shook his head. "No, man! I swear! Give me more time!"

X shook his head. "You tried, you failed. You only get one shot at this. Your time is up,"

"No, no, please!" Porter begged.

Too late. X had already brought the glock up and shot Porter right between the eyes. He didn't even flinch. The smirk reappeared. "You coulda screwed us over, Porter. This is your own fault,"

"And you just did screw us over,"

X's smirk faded. "You and I had an agreement too,"

"Yeah, and you just blew it, yourself. Next time learn to be a bit more clean… oh, there won't be a next time,"

Before X knew what had even literally hit him, there was a sudden pain in his chest, then his world went black and was no more.

---

"Oh! Aunt Carol!" Adam bounced up and down, happy to come up with another name.

Robin blinked. "Uh… Ads? She hated Dad…"

Adam shrugged. "At least I got another one,"

Robin glanced back at the list with three names in front of her. "Eh, good point,"

Adam laughed, then paused, feeling his cell phone vibrate. "Hold on, Sorry," he hit talk. "Adam Ross,"

"Hey, Adam. It's Mac… uh… hate to say it, but some moron decided to commit murder at the worst possible time… twenty seconds before our shift ended, so… we got stuck with it for some reason… we gotta work a few extra hours now, so you're gonna have to cut dinner short,"

Adam nodded. "Yeah. Sure. I'm sure she'll understand,"

"Right," Mac hung up.

Adam hung up as well, then winced, looking at his sister. "Er…"

Robin smiled. "Duty calls? Go help. It's your job. I can wait. I'll go bother Amber again,"

Adam laughed, then leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek. "You're the best, sis," he dropped the money he owed for the beer he had on the table, grabbed his jacket and ran out the door, leaving Robin laughing behind him.


	3. Boys and Gal's Night In

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews. I don't own CSI:NY. I own what you don't recognize. Rae, keep your mouth shut about Lily.**

The next afternoon, Adam sighed. For the past couple of hours, he had been processing some of the evidence from the case, and he was worn out. He had also been trying to come up with an excuse to get away from Robin when he got back to his apartment because she had told him she was going to give him a haircut before they went to their mother's home. Of course that gave them just over a month, but Robin was one of those people who once they had their mind on something, they did it right away. That was one thing that they didn't have in common. He also wasn't one for haircuts. However, Danny had heard of Robin's plan and called her, saying that he would recruit Don and both of them would help the lab tech down. Needless to say, Adam was also working out how to get away from them. He had just worked up the plan of distracting them with beer and a Kate Beckinsale movie when Mac walked into the lab.

"Hey, Adam. You have anything?"

Adam nodded. "Yeah… uh…" he pointed over to his right at one of the screens. "The vic with the slit throat? His name's Alan Russo. Yeah, don't think he was such a vic, after all. His prints were all over the gun we got, but still nothing on what or who killed him, right?" Adam asked.

Mac nodded. "Right,"

Adam sighed. "Sorry. That's all I have right now,"

Mac shook his head, then looked back at the file in his hands.

Adam frowned when he got a better glance at the picture of the victim that Russo had apparently killed. "Wait a sec… can you flip that over?"

Mac raised an eyebrow, then turned over the picture. "You know him?"

"I thought he looked familiar. Not personally, but I think he was at the coffee place my sister, Danny, Flack and I went to a couple of days back… are those two here? Maybe they can see if they recognize him…"

Mac shook his head. "They're both off on another case,"

Adam flinched a bit. "Then can I send a picture of him to Robin, see if she recognizes him, maybe? I promise it won't be the autopsy photo, and I won't tell her anything about the case," he closed one eye, expecting a 'no'.

"… Sure. Use your cell,"

Adam opened his closed eye, then blinked and looked at Mac. "… Really?"

Mac nodded. "Really. Just be careful. Choose your words carefully. I trust you won't say anything, but just to be safe,"

Adam nodded, then watched Mac leave. "…Wow," he fished into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone and started up a text, asking if she would look at the picture. After a couple of minutes, he couldn't help but laugh at the reply.

**If it's a picture of a dead body, I'll kill you. Ironic, yes, it's true, too.**

He wrote that it wouldn't, then sent the picture.

**Actually, yeah. He was kinda antsy. Made your friend Flack jump once or twice. **

He thanked her, then went in search of Mac. When he found him, he literally jumped in front of him. "Yeah, she recognized him,"

Mac pressed his lips together, then nodded. "Alright, he's been dead less that two days,"

"Why didn't anyone smell him or something?" Adam asked.

Mac shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine… it's an abandoned alley… that's my guess… keep up the good work," he left.

Adam slowly grinned. "… It keeps getting better and better with him!"

--

That night:

"Yo, Ross, ya there?" Danny called, knocking on the door.

Don, who was behind him, snorted. "Probably sidetracked playing Halo or somethin',"

"You think he's a Halo kinda guy?" Danny raised an eyebrow.

Don nodded. "Yeah, don't you?"

Danny shrugged. "I figured him to be more of a Guitar Hero guy,"

Don laughed. "Well, we're about to find out… I don't remember his collection,"

"You've been here?" Danny asked.

Don nodded. "Yeah. Once….Don't remember much, though"

Danny laughed. "Dare I ask?"

Don shrugged. "I walked two steps inside, then tripped over his stuffed German Shepard… you know, like Rowdy in Scrubs… I blacked out, woke up with him standing over me poking me… I headbutted the poor guy 'cause I didn't recognize him at first. Thought he was some guy tryin' to steal my wallet,"

Danny laughed harder to the point where he was actually crying. They waited a few more seconds, then Danny knocked again, and this time they got a reply, then both raised an eyebrow when they both heard a thud, followed by a female voice who they soon realized was Robin's. She was yelling death threats at him, and one of them involved 'The Damn Dog we had when we were kids' and 'Danny was right'. Don figured the same thing that happened to him thanks to the dog had just happened to her. A moment later, the door opened, and Robin was on the other side, her hair was messed up and she was hunched over. "Hi, guys. Come on in,"

"What happened to you?" Danny laughed.

"Our old dog, Spock, happened to me, that's what," Robin replied.

" 'Spock'?" Don grinned.

Robin shrugged. "We come from a line of Trekkie's," she explained, pushing the door further open.

The two men stepped inside, then both laughed yet again, seeing Adam tied to a chair by bungee chords, covered with an old sheet. A table with a pair of scissors was next to him.

"He-e-eeeeeeelp!" Adam whined.

"You started without us, Phoenix?" Danny looked at Robin.

Robin blinked. " 'Phoenix'?"

Danny shrugged. "He said he's from Phoenix, so you are, thus Phoenix,"

"Nickname. He calls some people the place they're from," Don explained.

"Ah," Robin nodded. "Well, yeah, anyway. Sorry. The hair sticking out in the back was bothering me too much… that's the only way I could keep him still," she replied.

Don smirked. "Getting yourself dolled up, Ross?" he teased, flicking the younger man's ear , then sat down on the couch.

"Yeah, very funny," Adam mumbled. "Are we done yet?" he whined.

Robin laughed, running a hand through her hair to get it back to normal. "Yeah,"

"Good," Adam nodded. "Get me outta here, Messer!"

Danny tilted his head. "I dunno. I kinda like you like this… not jittery. Any chance of a gag?"

"Flack," Adam turned to the dark-haired man for help since it obviously wasn't going to work with Danny.

Don sighed. "Fine. You owe me," he put down the two paper bags he had, then started undoing the bungee chords for him.

When he was free, Adam jumped up and pointed at Danny. "HA!"

"Exhibit A," Danny pinched the bridge of his nose.

Adam scoffed.

Robin laughed. "Well, I'll let you boys have… well, Boys Night In… I'll come back later," she turned to the door again, then yelped when Don grabbed her right arm and yanked her next to him onto the couch. "Stay. Save us," he muttered.

Adam narrowed his eyes and smiled again. "Gee, thanks,"

"Any time," Don nodded, then picked his paper bags up again and put them on the table.

Danny dropped a couple of more as well. "The red ones are from that Chinese place on the corner and the white ones are from Hogan's Heroes a couple of blocks down," he explained, pointing to the bags respectively.

"Awesome. I got the pizza in the kitchen, too," Adam nodded, getting up to get the said item.

"Wait a minute… Chinese food… heroes… and pizza?" Robin chuckled. "You guys eat all this?"

Danny laughed, watching Adam come back with the pizza. "We fight crime for a living. We need the food for energy to keep you people safe," he replied, then leaned forward to get one of the pepperoni slices.

Don shook his head. "Wow, what a gentleman, Dan," he looked at Robin. "Hero? Chinese? Pizza?"

Robin smiled again. "Why thank you, Don. I'll take a hero,"

Don opened the bag. "Italian or American?"

"Wow, you boys came prepared," Robin kept laughing. "Italian,"

"My kinda gal, yet again," Danny cheered.

Robin's laughter faded slightly, but not at his comment it was more to get her breath back. She leaned towards Don. "Is he drunk?"

Don leaned towards her. "Not yet. Just hyper… he'll get really crazy when the beers come out,"

"And you won't?" Robin raised an eyebrow, nodding a thanks to him when he handed her the hero.

Don opened his mouth, then closed it, thinking about it. "…I'm usually in control when there's someone new around… your brother and Danny, however…" he leaned closer. "You may wanna know where all the exits are,"

Sure enough, Don was right. A couple of hours after Adam had gotten the beers out, Danny was completely drunk, Adam was about halfway there, and Don and Robin were sober, busy laughing at Adam's Anti-Mac rant and Danny singing along to the song on the radio since they had turned off the football game.

"I think this is your last one, Messer," Don shook his head, still grinning while taking the bottle of beer Danny had.

Danny pointed at him. "Hey, we had about twice that a couple of months ago? Remember the party we had at your ex's? We were totally out of it, and then "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy" came on…"

Don's smile faded. "Shut up, Messer…"

Robin's grin grew. "What happened?"

Don covered his eyes, looked down and shook his head. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing,"

"He and I did a strip tease to it," Danny said proudly, then burst out laughing.

When Robin stared at him briefly, then burst out laughing harder than she had any time during the night, having the mental image of the two men totally drunk and doing the dead go through her head, Don settled for banging his head against the coffee table. "Reason number two I try hard not to get smashed any more," he mumbled.

Danny laughed. "Hey, Ross! Weren't you there? Don't you have it recorded?"

Don went pale briefly. "Ross…" he growled.

Adam put his hands up. "No, don't… at least I don't think so…" he looked at Danny. "Sorry, man,"

"S'Okay, Ross!" Danny made a thumbs up. "I think I'm just gonna… pass out now, though," and with that, Danny literally fell over. The sober two jumped up to help him and lay him down on the couch.

"Welcome to Boy's Night," Don shook his head. "Give him ten minutes, then I'll get him up," he looked at Adam. "And you. Sit,"

"Hey! Remember, that's my brother there," Robin shot at him playfully.

"And when I'm looking for Mac he bothers the Hell outta me, so I have the right to do this. He said so himself," Don replied, watching Adam sit down, looking absolutely terrified of him. "Jesus, kid, take it easy!"

"Dude, I'm not one for getting bossed around," Adam replied, pointing at Don. "Stella told you our whole 'Dad-post-suicide-situation. He always bossed us… sorry, not 'us'. Just me and our little brother again,"

Don honestly did feel bad after managing to understand what the man said since the words were slurred, then paused. "What does he mean 'just him and our little brother'?"

Robin's smile faded. "Long story… let's just say…being the oldest… made you able to stand up for yourself more, you know? Have the courage to get out of there to avoid conflict…" she glanced at Adam. "Get _him_ outta several situations that would've ended really bad… Dad never really forgave me for that,"

As much as he wanted to know more, Don didn't ask any more questions, feeling like he had already made the situation worse. "Hmm…" he glanced at the T.V. "So, what's going on in the world?"

"Thank you!" Robin laughed weakly, getting the remote, then paused, hearing her phone ring. "Sorry," she tossed it to him, then went into the kitchen area after seeing who it was. "Hey, Lil! What's up, sweetie?" Her smile faded. "Your dad did what?" she demanded.

Don snorted a bit. "Her kid?" he mouthed at Adam.

Adam paused, then laughed hysterically. "Lily? Her kid? Oh, Hell no!"

Don raised an eyebrow, then glanced back at Robin, who was now practically hissing at someone, apparently this Lily person's father. He could barely comprehend what she was saying before she hung up a couple of minutes later. "… Family issue?"

"Yeah, but nothing bad. Our brother Josh nearly burned down the house while attempting to make Mac and Cheese for my niece, Lily. That's who called," she explained. "You'd probably like Lily,"

"Is that a fact?" Don chuckled.

"Yeah. She's adorable. Likes tall people too," Robin mused.

Don nodded. "Well then, I'll have to meet her. I'm sure we'll get along fine," he looked back at the T.V and turned it on. His smile faded as well, and Adam seemed to straighten up when they saw the subtext of the headline on the news. "Second victim found in two block radius of a crime scene from yesterday,"

"That's two blocks from our crime scene," Don thought out loud, then looked at Danny. "Messer, wake up!"

The blonde didn't budge.

Don sighed, then looked at Robin. "…You're taller, but it'll work. Do me a favor. Take your hair and put it in front of your shoulders so it looks short, then face the door, okay?"

"O…kay?" Robin blinked, then did as she was told.

Don nodded, then shook Danny's shoulder. "Hey, Messer. Lindsay's here,"

Danny now stirred a bit. "Wha?".

Don pointed at Robin and hoped his plan would work. Judging by the suddenly horrified look on the blonde's face, he knew it did.

"…Oh! OH SHIT! I'M NOT DRUNK!" he ended up falling right off the couch, then got a better look at 'Lindsay'. "Oh thank God," he glared at Don. "…I'm gonna get you for that," he growled, now sobered up as Robin turned back around.

Don just pointed at the T.V.

Danny read the line, then groaned. "…Tomorrow it's back to the mines, boys,"

Adam and Don grunted in agreement. Don glanced at his watch, then frowned. "Ten thirty already? Wow. Well, I better get home,"

Danny nodded. "Me too. The REAL Lindsay'll be getting worried,"

The Ross' nodded.

Danny shook hands with Adam, then nodded at Robin, while Don did the near opposite, clapping Adam on the back, then shaking Robin's hand. "See you soon," he said, getting his jacket,"

"Right," the other two replied.

The men smiled, then left.

Ron watched them, then shook her head. "Well, that was… interesting," she looked at Adam, then frowned, seeing him staring at her with an odd grin. The wheels were obviously turning. "What?!"

"You. Flack. Someone's got a cru-uuuusssshhhhh!" he replied In a sing song voice.

"…Shut up, Adam,"


	4. I Am Calm

**A/N: 'Kay, this chap is incorporating last week's episode with the explosion… yeah, well, it'll incorperate the whole episode, but just the explosion part for now, because my mom's best friend, who I hate, and I were watching it and she nearly got sick seeing Adam's cuts, so it holds a special place in my heart now, haha. So... yeah. SPOILER FOR THE 3/10 or whenever it was episode. The rest will be mentioned later and in the next chap. The fic's main storyline will continue in the next chap. Enjoy.**

The next morning, Robin hated that she had ever introduced Jessica and Amber to Adam more and more by the moment. She was sitting across from them at Jessica's kitchen table, head planted firmly on the glass top, arms folded in front of it. She had decided to give Adam a break and spend the night at Jessica's, and they had all slept in, so they were having a late breakfast.

"You're right! Danny and Sheldon are hot too, but come on! His friend Flack gives him a run for his money!" Jessica nodded, replying to Amber, adding to the half hour conversation about how hot Adam's coworkers were. And frankly, since now it was safe to call two of them friends, it was awkward for Robin. Not to mention she felt bad for Adam since he had a crush on Jessica since… that night just about fouteen years ago, and she hadn't commented on him at all. Then again, she figured that was a good thing because she would've felt even more awkward being part of the conversation. "Guys, can we talk about something other than how hot they are?" She asked, raising her head. "Please?"

Amber laughed. "Fine… other than how hot they are in general… Flack's eyes! They're GORGEOUS!"

Robin groaned, and her head hit the tabletop again.

Amber looked at her and laughed harder. "What? You said other than how hot they were, and made it seem like a general sense! That doesn't include his eyes!" she replied. "Hey, you've seen him lately! What did you think of his eyes?"

"A, yes it does, you idiot, and being that I wasn't focused on them. I was looking at him in general when we were talking," Robin replied without lifting her head.

"Not much?! … What kind of girl are you?!" Jessica laughed as well.

Robin just raised her middle finger and moved her arm side to side so she flipped both of them off.

The girls smiled. "Awww, it's okay, we still love you!" they hugged her.

Robin sighed. "I'm starting to think that they were better company than you two," she replied sarcastically.

"Ouch!" Amber's jaw dropped, then grinned and picked up Robin's phone when it started ringing.

Robin rolled her eyes. "Amb, gimme, come on!"

"Nu-uh. Who is it?" Amber asked.

"Probably Adam asking what my plans are. Hand it over!" Robin lunged for her, growling a bit when Amber ducked away.

Amber grinned at her and flipped the phone open, hitting talk without seeing who it was. "Hiiii, Robin's phone!"

Robin slapped her forehead, then went to Amber's side to try and hear who it was, as did Jessica.

"_Uh… who's this_?"

Amber gasped. "Danny?"

_"… No. Who am I talkin' to? Where's Robin_?"

"Ooooh, it's you, Flack! Hi!"

Robin growled again. "Amber, gimme the phone,"

_"What's going on over there? Do I have the wrong number? Linds? Stell_?"

"Don, gimme a sec!" Robin called.

"Awwwwwwwwwww, you called him Don!" Jessica teased.

"Are we back in college, guys? Gimme my phone!" Robin dove towards Amber.

"_Hellllllloooooooooo_?!" Don called on the other end.

"What's wrong? Don't you wanna talk to Robin's friends?" Amber asked, leaning away from Robin.

"_Not particularly, no. Look, it's kinda an emergency. Clearly you guys haven't seen the news lately… is she there? I coulda sworn I heard her…_" the rest of Don's explanation was cut off since Amber had literally tossed the phone away when Robin had nearly gotten it.

Robin led the mad dash to get to it. "Don, yeah, I'm here, just lemme get away from Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb…"

" '_Kay… I think…_" Don, on the other end merely blinked, then took the phone away from his ear and stared at it when he heard things falling over, getting moved or dragged, cursing, and an occasional "I will end you!" from Robin. He waited patiently until the noise died down. "_So… you okay, now_?"

"Yeah, I'm fine… had to lock myself in my friend's bathroom and climb in the shower to get away from the one you were just talking to and my other friend,"

"_Hm. Kinky,"_

Robin laughed. "Perv!"

"_I've been called worse," _Don replied. "Look, before you go crazy, as far as we know, Adam's fine now…"

" 'Now'?"

"_Oh, right, you haven't seen the news. Damn reporters…_"

"What're you talking about? Is Adam okay?"

"_He got hurt during some explosion a few minutes ago_-"

"WHAT?!" As if she didn't need any more panic after hearing that, apparently Don had the same problem. Someone had grabbed the phone from him.

"_Phoenix? It's Danny, now. He's fine, just has a couple of gashes-"_

"THAT'S SUPPOSED TO MAKE ME FEEL BETTER?!"

Another struggle, but this one was faster.

"_Miss. Ross? Mac Taylor, Adam's boss. We met briefly before?"_

"What, the hell… is going on?"

"_Miss. Ross, just calm down_,"

"I. Am. Calm," she growled, then sighed, realizing he had a point. She took another deep breath. "I am calm," she said, more gently than before.

"_Good. Adam's just a bit shaken up, but he's alert. The gashes look worse than they are,_"

"Keyword 'gashes'," Robin growled. "I wanna see him,"

"_I figured as much. Same with him. You must really rate. The first thing out of his mouth other than answers to my questions was asking where you were_,"

"Stop changing the subject. I need a car or taxi or something. My friend needs the car,"

"_Adam gave me your friend's address. I can come get you, if you'd like. I was just about to leave the scene to check on him_,"

"Really? It's not too much trouble?"

"_Not at all. Just be ready to run out the door within fifteen, alright_?"

"Thank you SO much!" she sighed.

"_Any time. See you soon_,"

"You too," She nodded, then hung up. She looked around, seeming to remember where she was. "…Damn it," she got out of the tub and opened the door, not at all surprised to see Amber and Jessica waiting for her outside. "Hung up already, I gotta see something," she replied, plowing her way through to get to the T.V in the living room. She turned on the news, and sure enough, a few seconds later, clips wreckage from a house. She didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the next clip, seeing Adam, with the couple of gashes on his forehead, going through some of the wreckage. She read the headline with "Man Hurt in Explosion Helps Find Survivor". _Adam. Always a hero. _They showed another clip, and it was him being looked after by an EMT. She spotted the two gashes that were mentioned and surprised herself by smiling since whenever she saw him flinch away from whatever the EMT was putting on the cuts, she flinched as well.

"Is that Adam?!" Amber asked. She had probably joined her shortly after.

"Yeah," Robin nodded. "That was his boss on the phone before. He's taking me to the hospital to see him,"

"Is he okay? Were those cuts the only spots he got hurt?" Amber asked.

"I think so, I'll have to see-" the doorbell rang.

"Is that your boyfriend?" Jessica laughed, still in the kitchen. "I'll get it,"

The two watched her go to the door. When Robin heard Mac introduce himself, she slipped on her jacket. "Hold on, he's here for me!" she led the way into the hallway.

"Miss. Ross,"

"Robin, please," Robin nodded a greeting. "Uh, Mr. Taylor, these two are my friends, Jessica and Amber,"

"Who I've heard of from Adam. He speaks very highly of you both. Now, if you'll excuse me, this one has to go do her sisterly duties for Adam,"

"Got it," Amber nodded as Mac and Robin started making their way towards the stairs leading to the exit.

"Have her back by two!" Jessica called.

Robin flipped her off yet again, then continued to walk. "you haven't heard a word about them, have you?"

"Not one," Mac confirmed. "They just looked like talkers. I figure you wanna see Adam and not just wait while they ask me about things," he replied.

Robin laughed.

--

Before they knew it, after a trip to Adam's apartment to get a few items of clothing, the two had arrived at the hospital that Adam had been taken to, and after a bit of difficulty, they found their way to Adam's room. Upon seeing him upright, Robin immediately launched herself at him. "Ads!"

Mac chuckled a bit and dropped back.

Adam half-coughed, half laughed. "Hey, sis,"

Robin immediately pulled away. "Oh my God! Did I hurt you?!"

"A bit," Adam blushed.

"I'm sorry!" Robin laughed weakly, then put her hand on his head and looked at the stitches above his eye. "I leave you alone for a day and this happens? At this rate, I'm never leaving New York from now on!"

"Aww, really?" Adam frowned, faking a disgusted look.

Robin pointed at him. "Don't get cute. I can extend your stay here by sweet talking the doctors or causing you more harm, hon,"

Adam's disgusted look turned into one of shock. "Please don't!"

Robin laughed, then ruffled his hair and kissed the top of his head. "I'm glad you're okay,"

"So am I," Adam laughed.

"Me three," Mac added from the corner.

Adam looked over, not having seen him yet. "Mac!"

Mac smiled. "Hey. How's everyone's favorite lab tech feeling? We all hate doing the lab work. We're starting to appreciate you more,"

Adam grinned. "Glad to know I'm loved,"

"You bet," Mac nodded. "Did the doctors say when you're gonna be out,"

"Within a couple of hours, actually," Adam replied.

Robin scoffed. "B.S!"

Adam shook his head. "No, seriously. The doc said so!"

"I still don't believe it. I'll talk to him. We brought you clothes, too,"

"Great…now I'm embarrassed. Either my sister or my boss went through my underwear drawer… It's a no win situation,"

"I went through him. We figured it's kinda better a family member goes through them as opposed to boss," Robin replied.

"Well, when you put it that way…" Adam nodded slowly.

Mac chuckled again. "Adam, I assure you, I have no desire to go through them anyway,"

"Good to know," Adam nodded, then glanced up when his doctor came in. "Hey, Doc, tell them what you told me about going home,"

"I knew they weren't going to believe it," Doctor Glenn Becker said with a smile. "Now, I take you're Robin if he's so determined to say he can go home?"

"Uh huh," Robin nodded.

"Well, he's right. He just needed to be stitched up, otherwise he's fine. He can stay home for a day, but only if he wants to… what did you say you were again, Adam?"

"I'm Mac Taylor. He's a lab tech in my lab," Mac spoke up. "He'll probably want to come back and I won't be able to convince him otherwise, so he can work today, then he's going to have a couple of days off," he said the last bit as if it was an order, and judging by the look he sent Adam afterwards, it was.

Glenn nodded. "Well, just take those pain meds and you should be good as new soon,"

"Right on!" Adam swung his legs over the bed and bounced off a bit too quick, suddenly feeling dizzy. "Okay, head rush… Whoa," he shook his head to clear the stars.

"And get up slowly next time," Glenn patted his shoulder. "Miss. Ross…Mr. Taylor, have a good day,"

"You too,"

They watched him leave.

Robin turned to Adam. "Yep. I'm not leaving until that's totally healed up,"

"… Lookin' forward to it,"


	5. What Was That?

**A/N: Okay, so I lied. This'll go along side by side with this season's storylines, just switching around the time of year as well as a few small changes, but it's still back to the main storyline was well. Ah, I also apologize for the really lame Italian here. I stopped taking it last year and I forgot most of it you recognize, I don't own. What you don't, I do. Otherwise, enjoy.**

"No, Danny, shut up. You've accepted me really quickly, so I'm gonna do this for you!" Robin told Danny for the third time as she continued dragging him down the busy city street they were on. The rest of the C.S.I team were a few feet behind, slightly afraid of what Robin had planned after hearing about Danny and Lindsey's engagement a day after she had left. Mac seemed to be amused. Then again, at the same time, getting more and more annoyed that Adam and Robin were the only ones knowing where they were headed, judging by the lab tech laughing every so often and calling out the right direction when Robin looked around, yanked Danny one way down one street one moment, only to come back and mutter "it's this way" the next while pointing in the right direction before calling "Onwards!". Of course, he and Stella had agreed to plan a good section of the event, but without knowing where exactly the place they were going to was located.

"And where exactly are you taking me? Shouldn't you be taking both Lindsey and I to this place?" Danny complained after he got tugged back and forth for what seemed like the thirtieth time. He chuckled when he heard Adam call up to ask if he should hop into one of the stores and ask for a map.

"I would've if she was actually here," Robin replied. "Ah, here we are!" she let go of Danny and literally kicked open the doors. "I HAVE ARRIVED!" she called, startling a heavy-set Italian man and a tall, skinny blonde man.

It didn't take long for the Italian's look of surprise to fade, replaced with a wide grin. "Bella Ragazza!" he called, immediately rushing over to her and enveloping her in a tight hug, lifting her up in the process. He let her go, and then kissed both of her cheeks. "There you are! Come stai?" he asked with a thick accent.

Robin released him, but still grinned as wide as he did. "Bene, Paulo. E tú?"

"Perfetto, now that you are qui! You finally came to work for me, eh?" Paulo asked.

Robin laughed at her friend's broken English. It made what he said hard to follow, but it still gave him that piece of personality she loved. "Of course I did, but first, we talked on the telephone about my friend here?"

"Scusi?"

Robin sighed. Of course, he was still learning English, so talking with it the whole time and speaking fast didn't help. "Mi dispiace, abbiamo parlato al telefono," she pointed at Danny. "Di lui?"

"Ah, si!" Paulo nodded. He looked at Danny. "Forgive me, my English… not so well,"

Danny laughed. "No problem, sir," he nodded. "Now what's this about?"

"La festa!" Paulo replied.

"Festa? Wait, I know this one…Party? What party?" Danny demanded.

"Your engagement party with you and your friends, Danny. Look, Adam gave me Lindsey's number, I spoke to her, and she's fine with you having this party. Feels you deserve it, then you guys are going back out when she gets home," Robin replied.

Danny shook his head. "Aw, Phoenix, you didn't have to do this!"

"I helped out with the idea, contact, and place. Mac and Stella did the rest," Robin replied.

Danny turned around, searching for Mac and Stella, then smiled when he saw them. "Really?"

They nodded. "Guilty,"

"Thanks," Danny grinned.

"Any time," they nodded.

Danny laughed. "I was wonderin' why everyone was following behind,"

"We couldn't resist seeing your reaction," Sid offered from the back of the group.

Everyone chuckled and nodded in agreement.

Paulo clapped once. "Benissimo. Uh… have seat… be right back. Robin, come!" he motioned for her to follow him as he turned around.

"How nice, ordering a girl around," Don shook his head.

"Shut up, he's only been in the U.S for a short time. He's working on English," Robin shot back at him with a playful glare before following Paulo into the back room.

Everyone slowly sat down.

Danny looked around, then looked at Adam. "How'd she find this place?"

"Well, it was really Paulo she found. When it came to college, she still didn't know what she wanted to do, so she went with no specific major, then went to a few cooking classes since she figured it would be nice being a chef. Of course, that didn't work out, but when she was there, she met Paulo, and the rest is history," he looked over at the skinny blonde man they had all seen next to Paulo before. "Hey, Steve-O,"

"Hey, Ad. Big crowd today, huh?. Thought we were getting less," the waiter replied.

"'Cause it's never been only Rob's or my friend's, now it's Danny's here. So, have we gotta order or does Paulo have something planned?"

Steve laughed. "You're in luck, bro. Paulo's got it all in his head tonight,"

"Here's my question," Danny cut in. "This Paulo guy cooking. Is that good or bad?"

Steve's grin grew. "Like I just said, you're in luck. He's a culinary genius,"

Adam cut in now. "To add to what Flack said before, you haven't really eaten in New York unless you've a, had a hot dog or pretzel from a street vendor, and b, have had what this guy's cooked. I swear, you'll eat like a king tonight,"

"Sounds good to me," Danny nodded.

"Same," everyone else chimed in.

Robin came back in carrying a tray with a few glasses of water, starting to set them down.

"Aw, you're workin' when we're enjoying ourselves?" Danny asked.

"Yeah. I don't care. This is for you. Not me," she offered, setting the tray down. "Hey, this is gonna be a temporary job for me until Adam and I gotta leave for my mom's place next month,"

"What happened to 'until this heals'?!" Adam objected, pointing to the scratch above his eye.

"I lied, Little Brother," she replied before giving him a peck on the cheek. "You're stuck with me for a bit longer. I promise I won't stay at your place every night," she continued.

Stella smiled at them together, then directed her attention at Robin. "Come on, you started this up, you have to sit and eat with us at some point,"

Robin smiled. "I'll see. Either way I have a while since nobody else is here," she sat down half on the leg of Adam's chair, then half on Don's.

Don, amused, grinned. "You're able to do that in a place this fancy?"

She smiled at him. "If you haven't noticed, the owner loves me. He doesn't care and knows I can get a replacement if these break," she took Adam's water when he picked it up and went to take a drink, then took a drink herself before handing it back to him with a mischievous grin.

Adam snatched it back and downed it with a final glare at her, which earned him a cuff to the back of the head. "Ow! I'm wounded!" he complained.

"Hypocrite," Robin muttered. The two started taking turns sticking their tongues out at each other as well as throwing insults, entertaining the group for a while until the first couple of appetizers came out. However, the others soon learned that Adam wasn't joking about eating like a king, because within the next half hour, there were about seventeen different dishes out on the joined tables, and even if everyone was splitting them, they had barely put a dent in the amount of food there was.

"This is great. I just wanna know who's picking up the tab," Mac laughed after Don passed over the breadbasket.

Paulo, who had come out to see if his work was appreciated, waved his arms. "It's on de uh… … uh…" he snapped his fingers, looking at Robin. "On de casa…… casa?"

"House?" Robin smiled.

"Si! It's on de house!" Paulo nodded.

Mac and Stella look stunned, but the other men just said "Works for us" and piled even more food on their respective plates.

Robin laughed. "You guys are such dorks,"

"And you love us anyway," Adam countered.

. "Jackass," Robin shook her head, putting her arms on his shoulders, then leaning on him. "But you're my jackass,"

"Exactly," Adam grabbed her hands.

Stella shook her head. "I've said it once, I'll say it again. You two are adorable. I can't stop smiling when I see you guys play off each other,"

"Count on it," Adam nodded, moving his arm so he brought his fist up to shoulder level so she could hit it with her own. "What up!"

Mac laughed now, then sighed, glancing at his watch. "Whoa. I gotta go. I'm meeting up with an old friend of my own, so… sorry. Danny, congrats. Robin, keep Adam out of trouble," he took his jacket off of his chair.

"No promises!" the siblings called simultaneously as he left.

Stella nodded. "Well, I think that's our cue to get going. Everyone agree?"

"Yup. Mac's the life of the party," Danny agreed, getting up.

"Well, you enjoy yourself, Danny?" Robin asked.

"Best time I've had in a while. Thanks for startin' this up, Phoenix," Danny nodded.

"Any time. I'll try and work my magic for something for you and Lindsey alone, 'kay?" Robin offered.

"I'd love it and I'm sure Lindsey would too," Danny grinned. "Thanks again. Now that my stomach's about to explode, I have a date with my bed to get to. Flack, I know that sounded wrong, keep your mouth shut," he pointed at the homicide detective.

"I didn't say anything!" the other man laughed.

"You were thinkin' it," Danny countered.

"Crazy," Don mumbled.

Danny laughed, then passed around a few farewells to everyone before leaving. Soon, everyone else was also starting to clear out, leaving Adam and Robin to walk back to his apartment alone.

"You have some great friends, Ads," Robin turned to him hen they had gotten a block away.

Adam smiled. "I told ya I did. They're really my only good family next to you and Charlie," he replied.

Robin chuckled. "I'm happy for you. Really I am. It's nice to see you caught a break,"

Adam snorted, then nodded. "You're not kidding… speaking of Charlie… you seen him lately? I haven't heard from him in ages." The comment was about their brother, who they weren't honestly sure if he was full blood related or half blood related. Either way, they missed him and respected the man.

"No. I haven't. I'm sure he's fine," Robin assured him.

"I didn't say I was worried…. Not that I'm not… I just wanna see what he has to say about Dad," Adam replied.

"Hm," Robin cleared her throat, then looked ahead, only to stop in her tracks and just stare ahead briefly.

Adam blinked, looking in the direction she was, searching for something unusual in the crowd. "What is it, Rob?" His curiosity stopped and was replaced by confusion as well as fear at the next thing she said.

"Adam, run." She mumbled, already turning.

The young man's frowned deepened, still looking back at where she could be looking, then spotted two men looking right back at her. "Uh… who are-" he stopped, hearing one of them say something along the lines of "there she is", then they started running right towards them. "What…?"

"RUN!" Robin repeated, giving his arm a good tug in the other direction before she took off.

Adam knew better than to just stand there and ran after her.

After a few seconds, the two ducked into an alleyway after getting caught in a large crowd, then waited until they saw the two pass to move a little, and still waited a few seconds to make sure they didn't double back to take a breath.

Adam let out a huff and practically doubled over. He waited until his breathing was more or less back to normal, then looked up at her. "…So. You wanna tell your little brother what that was about?"


	6. Grand Tour

**A/N: I don't own CSI, blah blah blah. I own the OCs. I also put in an OC from my other CSI fic into this chapter. Anyways, thanks for the reviews. Moving on. Enjoy.**

Adam got up from the couch in his apartment, running a hand through his hair, not knowing what else to do. "You gotta be kidding me…" he mumbled, letting his other hand go to the back of his neck and letting the other one fall next to it, linking his fingers together.

Robin shook her head. "I know, Adam. I do, I swear… I wish I could really turn the tables somehow…"

Adam gaped at her for what seemed like the thirtieth time that night. It probably was, actually. "Turn the tables?. How?! This isn't you fault. A time machine is what you need! You're telling me that you actually witnessed one of the Carlin gang's murders. Rob, they're as bas as the Tanglewood Boys!"

"You think I don't know that?!" Robin demanded, then seemed to realize how harsh it came out. "I'm sorry. Look, I do know that. I saw one of the guys who escaped prison a while ago in the crowd of them. I tried to hightail outta there, but the guy saw me… they haven't left me alone since."

Adam shook his head. "… I gotta call Mac. Get him to get protection detail on you or… somethin'."

Robin turned to him. "Adam, no. Don't. I don't want him to worry about this. This has followed me from Colorado to everywhere I go, so it's not his jurisdiction… I've handled it before, I can handle-"

"Whoa, handle? Did you just say 'handle'? We just got chased down by guys who looked like they were Hell bent on killing us!" Adam waved his arms. "Define 'handled'."

Robin's shoulders sunk. "Dad made us learn one thing that paid off."

Adam raised his eyebrows and let his head go forward. "_Excuse me_? That guy did nothing but ruin-"

"He ended up being the reason we know how to hide well and get lost in a crowd easy." Robin cut him off.

Adam straightened up and shoved his hands in his pockets before looking away. It was his way of agreeing silently.

Robin sighed. "Fine. First thing in the morning, we go to Mac about it. Would that make you feel better?"

Adam nodded. "Much."

Robin smiled and opened her arms. "Come here."

Adam laughed and hugged her. "Love you."

"Love you more,"

----

The next day:

"Miss. Ross." Mac stated simply, surprised to see her trailing after Adam. "Something wrong?"

"Again, call me Robin, and well… yeah…" Robin replied.

Mac motioned at the bench beside them in the hallway. "Sit. Talk to me."

Robin blushed. "Mind if we actually talk about it somewhere more private?"

Mac raised and eyebrow at Adam, who just nodded a bit. "Alright. My office. Follow me."

The two nodded. Robin sent Danny a tight-lipped smile and waved when he passed and winked at her, clicking his tongue. They reached Mac's office and Adam took the two seats opposite Mac's desk, where Mac perched himself.

"Well…" Mac began. "Start talking."

"We uh… kinda sorta got followed on the way home last night…" Adam began.

"Are you two okay?" the older man immediately questioned.

"For now, yeah… being that this whole thing started with me witnessing something the two guys who were after us were involved in." Robin replied, poking her fingers together a few times.

Mac glanced at her. "Go on…"

"As Adam's told you, I live in Colorado. A while ago, I was in Denver, and I was in the wrong place at the wrong time… saw these guys in a group, next thing you know, one guy shot another, then one of them saw me. Got a good look at me 'cause I was actually frozen in place for a bit…"

"Understandable." Mac cut in.

Robin nodded. "Well, anyway, they trailed me, but I didn't know for a while… once I did, I started getting a bit paranoid… started checking out the paper to see if there were any similar murders later on. Turns out there were a lot. It turned out they were apparently done by the Carlin Gang…"

"Denver's Tanglewood Boys." Mac let his eyes trail to the ground briefly.

"Exactly. I hate to say it, but this whole trip wasn't just to see Adam here before we see our mom and the rest of the family… it was to get away from that. I didn't think they'd follow me here."

Mac shook his head. "You did the right thing coming to us. I'll see what I can do about getting protection for you… can you describe the… two, did you say, men who trailed you? We can get a sketch artist in here and put out a notice-"

"I can do you one better. I can give you their names." Robin replied. "They were arrested for battery, but got released quick… Tyler Hansen and Rick Morris… I saw their names and pictures in the paper once when they were arrested but released for assault."

Mac scribbled the two named on a piece of paper. "Alright." He pointed at Adam. "Sorry, Adam, but you have to get to the lab. We have a bit of work for you to do, but I promise I'll personally see that something's done." He moved his finger to Robin. "You, just hang around here for a while. I'll ask around and see who's open for protection, alright?"

Robin nodded. "Sure."

The three of them slowly rose from their positions.

Mac guided Robin towards the door with his hand on the small of her back, then led her to a chair right outside his office, just as Adam headed towards the lab.

Meanwhile:

"You know what I don't get?" Danny mused to Don and Sheldon, who were right beside him. They had been watching the whole scene unfolding, noting the similar gestures between the siblings. "Adam's this huge nerd, and his sister's this all around outgoing kinda gal. It's like they're not even related! They're supposed to be similar in overall behavior, aren't they?"

Sheldon shrugged. "Not always. I haven't spent as much time with her as you guys, but and she does kinda come across as hiding a dorky side as well. I can imagine her tripping over something and bouncing back up with this grin like 'nobody saw that', you know, how Adam does it?"

"You haven't met her." Danny interjected. "Doesn't come off like that _at all_."

Don laughed. "You kidding? I agreed with you until now. Didja see how the second he looked at her she straightened out? It's like Mac was the principal of some elementary school and she's a student! Hawkes here might be right after all."

Danny tilted his head." Yeah, she did… but who doesn't?"

"True." The other two nodded.

Robin, who was looking around, finally spotted them, smiled and waved.

"Come on." Danny led the way over to her. "Hey, Phoenix!" He greeted.

"Dan, Don," She laughed a bit. "Remind me to call you Danny, 'cause I don't think Dan and Don's gonna work. Throws me off a bit." She looked back at Sheldon. "I don't mean to sound like a bitch, but… what's your first name again? I remember Hawkes, but…?"

"It's Sheldon." Sheldon replied. "No problem. Not many do."

"Aw, I feel bad, though." Robin replied.

Sheldon waved his hand at her. "I told you it's fine. Some people remember names, others don't. Some names are memorable, others are plain."

"Yeah, but yours stands out, doesn't it? It's like your last name. It's unusual and barely ever heard…" she finally caught up with what she was saying. "… I'm making things worse, aren't I?"

Sheldon laughed. "No. Actually, just inspiring me, here. Have you met Sid yet? Our medical examiner? The way you go on, you'd love him and he'd love you." He suggested.

Robin laughed. "I'll look into that."

Danny leaned on the wall beside the chair she was in. "So why're ya here? We don't have visitors this early."

Robin sighed. "Long, long story."

"We got time… a 'long story' is never good." Don backed up Danny.

Robin shrugged. "Well, back in Colorado, mix one part wrong place, one part wrong time, one part murder, one part too shocked to move, and you get a Got-followed-to-New-York cake."

The men chose to ignore the awful joke and got closer to her. "What?"

"I saw a murder take place back in Denver… some of the guys involved saw me. They've been following me ever since, and now they're still after me in New York." She sighed, then crossed her legs. "I saw Mac already, he's trying to get some protection for me."

"What about Adam? You're with him, aren't you? He's protection." Sheldon shrugged, then caught the three disbelieving looks he received. "…Hey, he may not seem like he could, but you never know. I knew this dwarf in college. Really nice guy, but when he was gonna wrestle some six foot guy, we didn't believe he could do it. Two minutes into the fight, he threw one punch and knocked the guy out cold… Adam may be a spaz, but he could pack a punch for all we know."

"Oooh, like at the family reunion we heard about." Danny smirked, looking at Robin.

Robin rolled her eyes. "That was quite a few years ago. We were both twigs, pissed, and sugar high… that might've changed." She patted her stomach. "The first part has."

Don growled, then walked away, mumbling something about society and models.

Robin opened her mouth.

Danny shook his head. "Don't bother."

"O… kay?"

Danny grinned. "So, has Adam showed you around?"

"A bit," Robin shrugged.

"I'll give you the grand tour." Danny pulled her to her feet and started dragging her down a hallway.

"Uh…?" Robin pointed back at Mac when he saw him coming back with a police officer in tow, but Mac just rolled his eyes, waved his hand in a "go on" motion and went back into his office, talking to the officer as he did so. She turned back to Danny. "Should I be afraid?"

"At some points, yes."

"…Great."

Within a few minutes, Danny had brought Robin back to the lab, when Adam was nowhere in sight. "Well?" he grinned.

"Well, Sid's strange but cool, and… this place is like Kohls, man! It looks so small, but on the inside, it's like "how the hell did they fit all this into the building?"" she replied.

Danny laughed. "Yup."

Mac approached them. "Done yet?"

Danny mock-saluted his boss. "She's all yours."

Mac smiled, then nodded at the officer beside him. "Robin, this is Officer Thompson. He'll be put on protection detail, mostly keeping track of you."

"Keeping a small distance the whole time, I promise. Big enough for privacy, but small enough to get you outta trouble fast." Thompson cut in. "Call me Jake, by the way."

"Hi, Jake. As you heard, I'm Robin." Robin shook his hand. "You better have a good set of running legs on you, 'cause these guys are fast."

Jake snorted. "Fastest on my college track team, and I had to run like hell to save my friend who nearly got killed by my wife, at the time. When you're in my charge, you're safe." He offered, then shook his head while smiling, seeing her look of shock at the 'friend nearly killed by my wife at the time' thing. "You don't wanna know."

"Okay." Robin nodded. "That works."

Jake nodded. "So… where to?"


	7. Guardian Angel

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews. As I said, this chapter is pretty short, but it has a flashback into the Ross' early life… I think I went a bit overboard with it being depressing, but at the same time, it fits. I dunno, you tell me**. **The " ---" marks the start and end of that flashback. **

_**I will never let you fall  
I'll stand up with you forever  
I'll be there for you through it all  
Even if saving you sends me to heaven  
- "Guardian Angel" : Red Jumpsuit Apparatus**_

For the first time in ages, Robin was ready to kill the first person that got in her way of finding out what was going on. Her brother had landed himself in the hospital for the second time in the month she had been there, along with the other members of his team at work and it wasn't looking good. One officer who was with them in the bar had gotten killed, which made her worry about Adam even more.. With the rate things were going, she was considering asking a few of her friends from Colorado to get a bunch of her things and bring them to New York so she could stay there for good. Her nickname that was based on her and Adam's relationship, His Guardian Angel, was getting too eerily true.

Now, she had literally sprinted from another one of her friend's apartments to get to the nearest bus stop that made a stop close to the hospital everyone had been taken to. When she had reached the hospital, she immediately started searching for any clue that would lead her to her brother or a member of the team. _Guardian angel, _she reminded herself_. You're his guardian angel. You should know these things just by the connection you and him have. _

---

_An eighteen-year old Robin was pissed. Amber's boyfriend of seven months had been cheating on her. Of course, seven moths wasn't that long too be really serious, but Amber had fallen quite hard for the guy, which made finding him with another girl all the much harder. However, one thing was for sure. Robin always had Amber's back, no matter what, ever since fifth grade, and that was the reason as to why ten minutes before, Dillon had his ass handed to him by Robin, in front of his friends. Growing up in the household she did, she figured it was the only way to go for defending yourself or your friends. Words and other ways just didn't work out that well. _

_Without even noticing, she turned down her old block by her house, not realizing that the decision would change her and her brother's lives for a while. She hadn't been there in ages since she moved into her dorm after going into college. Granted, it had only been about a month and a half, but she still felt like she stabbed both Adam and her mom in the back. She could've cared less about her "father". It was just that thought that went through her head when she subconsciously looked at her old house, but her mind came slamming right ack to her when she saw who could've only been Adam flip over the couch that was in view of the window, then he bounced right back up, still not moving, but his hands were up and out, as if blocking something. _

"_What the Hell?!" she slammed on the brakes, looking around for her mother's car. It was missing. "Shit…" she looked around, trying to find anything that could help her in this situation. Where the hell were the neighbors? Penny Driscoll next door was nosey. Why wasn't she seeing this and calling the cops? She squinted to see back into the house. She usually hated it, but this time she was grateful that with the curtains wide open, you could see a good amount of the living room, and the stairs leading up to the bedrooms. When she saw her father yelling at Adam, then starting to storm up the stairs, her mind started formulating a plan._

_Her other brother, Charlie, had always been his sibling's guardian angel, their knight in shining armor. In times like these when their father was angry, they would call him and he'd come by to take them away for a while or just talk. He actually had a whole timeline planned out. Dad goes upstairs, wait five seconds, then run out of the car, jump the fence, get into the house, depending on the direction that their father went, climb up the lattice and into Adam's room, or just run right through the front door and usher them out of the door. She pushed the fact that Charlie was taller and faster than her aside and ran out of the car. She hopped the front fence and ran up to the door, swinging it open. That was another thing she would've never expected to be grateful for. They only kept the front door locked when they were out or turning in for the night. "Ad?" she called, seeing him lying on the ground, holding himself up on his elbows. She felt the sudden urge to punch something when she saw he already had bruises on his arms and face, and a few spots on his face were also bleeding. "God, what'd he do to you?" Anger flared up inside her again. How could someone do this to a sixteen year old kid who wouldn't harm a fly?_

_Adam only managed a weak groan in response. _

_Robin shoo her head and moved under one of his arms, carefully helping him to his feet. "Let's get you out of here. Get some help," she walked with him right out the door and got halfway out when she heard her father coming back down the stairs. "Shit, shit, shit!" she hurried the rest of the way, helping him into the front passenger seat, just as her father reached the entryway. _

"_WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, ROBIN JEAN?!" she heard him call. _

_She turned around and pointed at him, just as she reached the driver's side. "Stay the hell away from us!" She let out a small yelp and flung herself into the seat when he started making his way towards the car. "Come on!" she started it, then sped off right when he made it about two feet from the car. When she got halfway down the block, she let out the breath she was holding, then looked at Adam. "You're safe now, it's okay. I'm gonna get you some help, okay?" she fought back a smile when she thought she heard him mumble "Thanks," "No problem, Little Brother." _

_After a few more minutes of driving and checking on Adam every other minute, they reached the local hospital. Robin led Adam in, supporting him on her hip, the same way she had before. She knew whom she wanted to talk to, but after what she had done earlier, she wondered if he would want to see her or he'd turn her away. Then again, it was illegal if he did turn her away.. When a nurse hurried over to them, Robin immediately asked for Doctor Hank Russell. She waited patiently, then let out a relieved sigh again when she spotted the man coming her way. She tried to push the fact that he was Dillon's father to the back of her mind. He was the best doctor in the place, according to several sources. That was what mattered. Knowing him through someone was also a decision making factor. That's how people in the town worked. You got a job if you knew someone who knew someone else. _

_When Hank arrived, he practically dropped the clipboard he had after he saw Adam._ "_My God. Robin, what happened?!" Hank asked, immediately going to Adam's other side to assist her. _

"_My father happened, that's what." Robin snarled. _

_Hank nodded, understanding what must've gone on. "Come this way. We have a room open." He led the way to an exam room and immediately started wetting a few cloths and wiping off the blood that was now dry off of Adam to see what other injuries had happened. "How long has your father been doing this?_

_Robin snorted. "I don't even remember. Too long, put it that way." She replied. _

_Hank licked his lips, then went back to tending to Adam, checking his reactions and everything else. After a few minutes, he finally spoke to the boy. "Adam, what exactly did your father do? Please, be honest, you can trust me, and it's clear your sister loves you enough that you don't need worry about being embarrassed." _

"_Yeah, I know." Adam mumbled. "He threw punches, kicks… a lot." _

_Robin inhaled sharply and clenched her fists so hard her palms hurt from having her nails digging into them when she heard something about a two by four. "Hey, Doc, I think it's better if I don't hear this." _

_Hank looked her over briefly, then nodded. "Wait in one of those chairs right outside. You did the right thing, Robin." _

"_I know." She replied before going outside._

_After a few minutes, Hank came out of the room_

_Robin looked up at him "He okay?" _

_Hank nodded. "More or less, yes. Nothing's broken, thank God. It sounds to me like you came in just in time. You're his guardian angel. _

_Robin smiled weakly. Guardian angel… she liked that. It was totally true, too._

_Hank's smile faded. "… You do know that I have to report this…" _

_Robin nodded. "Go right ahead. Let the scumbag suffer. I don't care. He's never been as bad as this… there's no way I'm letting Adam go back." _

_Hank nodded. "My point exactly," he studied her again. "Has he hit you before?" _

_Robin nodded, then looked at her right shirtsleeve and pulled it up, showing a spot with a thin, medium sized scar in a straight line. "Hits me, and gave me that when I was twelve."_

_Hank glanced at it. Sympathy for her was evident in his eyes. "And your mother didn't report this-" _

"_Because she's scared, weak, and acts oblivious." Robin cut him off. "And we couldn't get to any cops because my dad would just know somehow." She looked away. "He always knew." _

_Hank nodded slowly. "…This is something you wouldn't usually tell to me or any doctor compared to a cop, but… has he ever abused you… sexually?" he forced out the word as if not wanting to know the answer. _

_Robin shook her head. "No, and that's the honest truth, I swear. He's just knocked us around." _

_Hank nodded, relieved. "… You're eighteen, correct?" _

_She nodded. _

_Hank looked around, then back at her. "Are you in a dorm in college?" _

_She nodded again. "Yes, but now with Adam getting within an inch of his life, I wanna change that. Find a cheap apartment, have him live with me." _

_Hank nodded. "May not work out just that way, but who knows. You're a legal adult, and obviously care deeply for him." _

"_Yeah, no shit." Robin rolled her eyes, then sighed. "Sorry, I just…." _

"_No. I understand. You can see him now, while I make that call." Hank motioned at the door. _

_Robin got up without another word and went inside, seeing Adam hunched over on the exam table, looking only slightly better than when she had left him. "Hey." _

"_Hey." Adam replied. A couple of minutes of silence passed, then he spoke up. "So what's gonna happen?" _

_Robin put an arm around him and pulled him close. "I dunno, buddy. But I know one thing. You and I are gonna make it through, okay?" _

"_Yeah." _

---

She had just turned down another hallway when she spotted a familiar head of strawberry blonde hair, and the owner saw her at the same moment.

"Oh, Robin!" Davis, Amber's latest boyfriend, who was an EMT, started to approach her. She sighed. Having the memory of the night that made her and Adam really grow up made her realize how much Amber couldn't escape having a doctor in her life. She concluded a moment later, that with Davis, that was far from a bad thing. "Dave!"

Davis sighed. "It was Adam I saw before, wasn't it?" he asked.

Robin stopped in front of him, bit her lip, then nodded. However, the stress from the events that were currently happening as well as the memory just caved in on her and she let out a sigh before hugging him.

Davis reassuringly hugged her back. "How are you?"

She pulled away. "Pretty lousy until I see my brother. You said you saw him? Is he okay?"

Davis shrugged. "I don't know. I haven't seen him since."

"Can we find him?" Robin asked.

"Of course. Come on, I'll see what I can do." Davis nodded towards one of the doors, indicating for her to follow.


	8. Classifieds

**A/N: I don't own CSI, blah blah blah, cheers for the reviews, moving on. Enjoy.**

"Robbie!"

Her name being called made Robin stop short, sending Davis stumbling right into her since he had dropped behind at some point. She turned towards the voice, then let out a squeak, seeing her brother walking towards her from the opposite hallway. "ADAM! Oh, Adam, thank you, God!" she launched herself at him, then jumped into his arms when she reached him, not quite caring what impression the people around them got.

"Whoa. Easy. Yeah, I'm okay. I'm fine… I won't be if you don't stop choking me." Adam laughed, risking moving one hand from her back to shake Davis' hand when the redhead joined them. "Hey, Dave."

Davis sighed. "I thought I saw you on a stretcher, man. Good to see you're okay."

Robin turned to him as best she could. "I thought you said you didn't see him!"

"I lied. You're welcome." Davis replied.

Robin glared at him, then maneuvered down to the ground. She still didn't let Adam go.

Davis blinked. "I know I saw a blonde come in on that stretcher with you guys, well, at least your boss. I've seen him on the news. Who was the other blonde-"

"Oh no. Danny." Robin frowned. "Is he…?"

Adam shook his head, then realized how the action could've been. "No. He's uh, well, alive, put it that way, but he's banged up. He didn't have feeling in his legs when he left…" Adam replied.

Robin covered her mouth. "Oh my God. Where's… where's Lindsay?"

"In the waiting room. You aren't gonna go too crazy with worry on her, are you?" Adam winced.

Robin sent him a look. "Ad, remember the way she and I met?"

Adam blinked, then looked down. "You had just arrived here and then Lindsay's water broke so she came up to me in a panic so I panicked and went to you for help… in a panic?" he replied in one breath, then blinked again. "Whoa. There was a lot of panicking that day."

"Yeah, and remember how I was calm with her when we drove her to the hospital?" Robin nodded.

"…You told her you had experience with helping out women in labor." Adam replied. "… then told her about the time you passed out when Monica ended up having Lily in the car like it was NOTHING!" Adam objected.

Davis raised an eyebrow. "You what?" he looked at Robin.

Robin pointed at him. "You, shut up." She looked at Adam. "Waiting room is…?"

Now it was Adam's turn to raise an eyebrow. "You're asking me? Helllooooo?" he pointed at Davis.

Robin rolled her eyes. "You're lucky you almost died today." She frowned. She turned to Davis. "Alright, you saw that. Where's the waiting room?"

Davis motioned towards another hallway. "You guys have a good portion of the NYPD in here. We probably moved you to the private waiting room. It's this way." He led the siblings to another area, then into the room. Sure enough, there was Mac, Stella, Sheldon, Angell, Lindsay, who was nearly in hysterics, and Don. They all looked up at the new arrivals. While Robin decided against her initial plan of blurting out her sympathy and took a seat next to Sid as Adam sat next to her, Mac got up to address Davis.

"Is Danny…?"

Davis cut him off. "I'm sorry, sir, but I don't know as of yet. I'm a family friend of the Rosses here. I just helped Robin find Adam, I haven't heard much." He licked his lips nervously when he saw Mac's concerned expression deepen. "I'll see if I can check in with people who do know. Will that help?"

"Very much so." Mac nodded, shaking the man's hand gratefully.

Davis nodded. "I'll be back soon." He left.

The group watched him, then turned their attention back to the floor or opposite wall, whatever they had been paying attention to.

After a while of silence, Sid looked up at the Ross siblings. "It's good you guys have friends in high places, huh?"

The two snorted. "You're not kidding." Adam replied.

Sid smiled, then patted Robin's knee. "Thanks for staying with us here, even if you're not… one of us… eh, bad choice of words, but you know what I mean. I'm sure Danny would appreciate it. We all do."

"I've said it before, I'll say it again. It's the least I could do for him." Robin replied, then smiled herself as she caught the grateful look Lindsay sent her, then sent Sid the same smile when he patted her knee again. She glanced over at Mac when a thought crossed her mind. "Hey, Mac? Can I uh… talk to you outside for a minute?"

Mac raised an eyebrow, then motioned at the door, leading her out. They walked a couple of feet away, then Robin turned to him. "Any idea who did this?" She crossed her arms under her chest.

"No, not yet." Mac shook his head.

Robin sighed. "Mac, if the guys after me did this, I swear to you, unless you want me to testify, I'm on the next plane home. I can't have this happen. You lost one today, and now Danny's injured…"

Mac put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "It's probably not. These guys have a problem with us, not you. If it _is_ your guys, you're safer here with family and friends in the crime lab, anyway, so stay here, alright?"

Robin nodded. "Thanks."

"Any time." Mac nodded, then paused. "This isn't going to come out the way I want it to, but I need to ask you a favor. It's another thing that will help you out."

"Shoot." Robin shrugged.

"I wanna ask you to… just… hm…" he searched for words, then seemed to find them. "I'm sure we're all going to be short tempered and stressed to the max these next few days now that we lost one of our own. So the products of that stress don't go towards you in the wrong way, would you mind just steering clear of us for a while unless you're asked for? Well, of course that's gonna be hard with Adam, but… Maybe stay at a friend's apartment?"

"Of course." Robin nodded. "I'm sure Amber will let me spend the night with them."

Mac smiled. "Thanks for understanding." He replied.

"Sure. I'll stay for a little while longer, and I'm sure I'll say it before I go, but if any of you need anything, tell me. I'll be glad to help with whatever it is." Robin replied.

Mac nodded. "Again, we appreciate it." He turned his attention when Davis came over. "Well?"

David swallowed. "A colleague reminded me of Doctor patient confiden-"

"We ARE Danny's family." Mac growled.

Davis shook his head. "Where's his wife?"

"Inside." Mac pointed at the door.

"I'll see her. She can replay the information." Davis replied.

Mac clenched his jaw, then nodded, figuring it was only fair.

Davis went into the room, asked Lindsay to come out, then the two walked into his office. A couple of minutes later, Lindsay came out, talking a mile a minute. Mac wanted to know how Davis was apparently keeping up with her. He pointed down another hallway, which Lindsay practically tore down to get somewhere.

When Davis returned, Mac raised an eyebrow.

"She's going to see him. She'll tell you what's going on later. Visitors are limited to one now." Davis replied.

Mac went to retort, then realized the man couldn't really do anything. He was doing his job, after all. "Thanks."

Davis nodded, then looked at Robin. "Are you gonna be okay? Do you need a ride to Amb's or anything? I get off shift in an hour, if you want to."

"Would you? That would be great. I'll just be with these guys 'til then." Robin gave him another hug, then watched him leave.

Mac and Robin went back into the waiting room, finding barely anything changed. It was still totally quiet, heads were down, glances were going around, but weren't met. They returned to their seats and did the only thing they could do: wait.

---

**The next morning:**

"Rob. Robbie. ROBBIE!"

"Whu-a-what?" Robin's head jerked up when the voice woke her up. She shifted her chin so it was resting on the sofa arm, then looked at Amber. "What's going on?"

"Your boyfriend Flack's here." Amber replied.

"Oh, shut up, already! He nearly lost his best friend last ni -" The rest of the sentence finally registered. She glanced at the clock. "2:00? He should be…"

"At work, I know. Duh, that's why I'm coming to get you. He's asking for you. Said he got the address from Mac who got it from Adam."

" M'kay." Robin got up slowly and pulled on the sweatshirt she had gotten from Adam's the night before.

Amber snorted.

Robin turned to her. "What?"

"You may wanna wash your face, too. Looks like you fell asleep on the newspaper." Amber replied, pointing at Robin's cheek.

Robin turned to the mirror in the corner, and sure enough, there were a few black smudges on the side of her face. "Oh, whatever." She started rubbing her cheek as she made it over to the door, then opened it. "Don, hey, what's up?" She would've been lying if she had said she wasn't relieved when he spotted her cheek and cracked a smile. After seeing him look awful the pervious day, she felt everyone needed to smile. "Yeah, I know, I have the classifieds on my face. What brings you here? You're supposed to be at work."

Don shook his head. " I overstepped my boundaries an hour ago. I slugged a guy who said all cops deserve to die like our boy Lions did. Mac sent me home. Being that I really don't know many people that are on the right side of the law, you were my best bet to actually have a conversation with and keep me from going insane alone. You mind if I come in, even for a few minutes or so?"

"Not at all!" Amber called from the kitchen.

Don went to smile again, then his mouth dropped into a frown. "Look, I know from Adam's stories that your girls are a bit crazy and flirty. Any chance they're sing- LE!" he laughed when she grabbed him by the front of his jacket and pulled him inside. "This is why you're awesome." He glanced back at her cheek again. "So, what was uh… that about? You said the classifieds, right?"

Robin sighed, then pointed to the paper on the table when they reached the living room. "I can't take it anymore. I nearly lost Adam twice in the time I was here, maybe even more times that you guys refuse to tell me about. I wanna be close by in case something really bad goes wrong in the future. My friends and family are closer to here than Colorado, anyway."

"So you're looking for a place?" Don asked.

"Yeah."

Don reached out. "Gimme."

"What, the paper?"

"No, the table. Of course the paper! What the hell's wrong with you?!" he teased.

Robin smiled again. She handed him the paper.

Don grabbed the pen, then looked from the paper to her cheek and crossed off a few of the ads.

"What on earth are you doing?" Robin inquired.

"Reading what used to be on the paper and is now on your cheek."

"I meant the crossing off part, genius." Robin narrowed her eyes.

"Look, would you trust your own, suburban, Arizona/Colorado ideas of a nice place, or a cop who knows what places are good or bad in the city, and knows a real New York deal?"

Robin pushed the paper and pen closer to his chest. "Have fun. Did I mention you're my best friend?"

"Many times." Don nodded, then looked over the paper and went on crossing ads out.

Robin paled. "They're all that bad?" she asked.

Don pointed at one. "Rapist just moved next door to that one…" He pointed at another. "There's a bloodstain on the living room wall that hasn't been able to come off for three months…" he pointed at a third. "Cockroaches and rats-"

"I get it!" Robin cut him off. "…So how long is it gonna take for me to find a decent one?"

"Alone, quite a few months. With me, two or three month tops."

"Ugh." Robin collapsed on the couch.

Don swatted her feet off the side he was closest to, then sat down, looking over the paper again.

Robin groaned again. "You're serious."

"Yup."

"This can't be happening."

"Now it's my turn to repeat myself: Welcome to New York."


	9. Mad

Alright, had to revamp the last couple of chapters so it's an officer that dies instead of Angell. If I kept up the way I was going, I was gonna screw up the timeline of the fic. If you readers want to check out the changes, feel free, but it's really just Flack being less depressed and whatnot. Now that that's settled, onwards. This is another short chap, but I'm gonna have a lot of updates in the next few days, 'cause I have a Christmas chapter for this fic. Enjoy, and don't forget to review!

--

Don Flack was not happy. With a few officers "out sick" after the recent shooting, his superiors had thrown him on various cases- even ones that weren't homicide. Others in his position would've loved the change, but homicide was _his_ _thing_. Mac, Stella, Danny and Hawkes were _his team_. Now he was stuck with some chatty redhead detective that was like a bad mix of Adam and Sid. It wasn't only his temporary partner that got to him, but what they were heading for: a gentleman's club that was supposedly hooked into some trafficking ring.

"I think this is it… wait… no."

Don rolled his eyes. The redhead was hopeless. He couldn't even remember the guy's name. It was McKinley, or something similar. The thing was, he didn't care. He was beginning to realize he probably would've preferred Sid and his random useless facts over this guy who probably couldn't tell the difference between Radio City and Madison Square Garden. "No, this is it." He pointed to a building with heavily tinted windows and a violet exterior. "Come on." He opened the door and was tempted to go right back out when the vibrations from Britney Spears' "Circus" playing on the speakers practically knocked him to the floor. "Great…" He glanced at the picture of the man in question they were looking for. He started showing it around, asking people if they had seen the man. Some of the women that he figured were the strippers shook their heads and attempted to rub up against him, saying things along the lines of "good time." He had learned to tune them out, so he just kept pushing passed them. He turned around once one of the girls accidentally hit his shoulder. In doing so, he spotted the man they were looking for. "Hey! Hey!" he waved his arms, trying to get the man's attention.

It did. The man started looking Don over, then his eyes finally rested on the badge. He tensed up.

Don groaned. "Don't run, don't run… come on, make it easy for once." He silently begged. However, a higher power didn't seem to work in Don's favor, and the man took off. Don sighed and tore after him. "Nothing screams 'guilty of anything' more than running, asswipe!" he growled, knowing full well the man couldn't hear him. He made it up and out of the door, then managed to tackle the man. "Running from the law, pal? Bad idea!" He cuffed him. "We didn't even read you your charges, man. Trafficking ring, and now running from the cops? You're screwed. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney, and to have an attorney present during any questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be provided for you at government expense." He dragged him around to the front of the building where the squad car was, then shoved the man inside. He finished in time to hear McKinley calling for him up front. "What?" he called without turning.

McKinley nodded. "I was about to ask these two if they had seen that guy when we split up, then they took off I grabbed them right when they were about to get out."

Don blinked. Yes, he had run off without the guy, which was dangerous, so sure, he'd take it as "splitting up." The thing was, the "two" he had "grabbed" were nowhere in sight. "Let's see 'em." He turned, but what McKinley had to say was drowned out right when his eyes settled on one of them. He simply gawked at the person who looked mortified and guilty all at once. Hell, he had reason to. It was Robin. He tilted his head at her and set her his usual "you've got to be kidding" look.

Robin smiled weakly, only momentarily. "Uh… hi, Flack."

Don wasn;t sure whether to want to kill her, or hug her and demand what she was doing in a place like that. His cop side won over. "Get them over here. _Now_. I wanna talk to the blonde. The brunette can go in the car."

McKinley raised an eyebrow. "Uh, Flack?"

"Just do it." Don snapped.

McKinley's other eyebrow went up, but he did as he was told, nudging Robin towards him and leading the brunette around to the other side of the squad car. "Take those two in. I'll take her."

"But-"

"McKinley, it'll be fine. I have a friend who's car I can borrow and get back. She won't cause trouble."

McKinley looked back and forth between the two, then sighed and got in the car and drove off.

Don turned to Robin. "Explain. Now. I thought you said you weren't that kind to be seen around that crowd, or be part of it, if that's what that was about."

"Well, I'm not, but my friend Jill is." Robin shrunk back slightly.

Don glanced at the disappearing squad car. "Was the brunette Jill?"

Robin nodded rapidly.

Don sighed, then pinched the bridge of his nose. "Ugh. You better have one Hell of a story. Alright, tell me what you were doing in there. I can't help you if you don't. It woulda helped if your protection was on you. Where Is Jake anyway?"

"He had a family emergency, and I figured I was gonna be safe when I'm three blocks from home."

"Safe? This is New York, sweetheart. You're not very safe anywhere, whether you have people after you or not!" Don objected.

"Hey, you wanted to know. Anyway, Jill's trying to get away from that whole scene. I'm apparently her ticket out, so even more reason to stay here in the city. I was dropping off her lunch."

"And why did you run?"

"Because she asked me to get out when she saw the badge on the both of you. She doesn't have a good repartee with cops, alright? She hasn't told me why, but it franly scares the shit outta me. She saw you and freaked, told me to lead her outta there. If I knew it was you, I would've assured you that it was gonna be okay-"

"You still ran-"

"Again, she gets freaked out. I dunno if she was arrested in the past, or had some screwed up relationship, but if she wanted out, I was gonna help her get out. It's what friends do, okay?"

Don pressed his lips together, then sighed. There was no trace of a lie whatsoever in her voice or expression. "Fine. Whatever. We have our guy, you're off the hook. We have our guy that we're really after, anyway."

"And you have no reason for holding Jill."

"And that'll be taken care of shortly. Now come on, my friend's just around the corner here."

--

Robin wasn't quite sure what was going to happen. He was taking a different route than the usual one home. She wasn't sure if he had actually lied and she was in the middle of taking her to the precinct to book her. She trusted Don, but he was a cop, and she had still run from him, no matter how she talked him out of it. However, he did in fact pull up to Adam's place, and Jake was on the sidewalk, and now he was gaping at them.

Don put the pieces together. "You stinkin' liar!" he scoffed. "Family emergency, my ass!" he laughed normally now.

"Right. Sorry. Bye, Don! Thanks for the ride!" she practically threw herself out of the car. "You're gonna take care of Jill, right?"

Don rolled his eyes in her direction.

Robin laughed. "Sorry." She patted the roof of the car, shut the door and took a flying leap to the space in front of Jake.

Don laughed when Jake glowered at her, then pointed inside. He reached towards the ignition to turn on the car again, just when he heard gunshots. He ducked out of instinct, then looked over by Jake and Robin. The man had already gotten Robin inside and was now looking for the source of the gunfire. "Damn it." He got out of the car and slid across the hood to land beside Jake. "Anything?"

"Not yet." Jake replied quickly, still looking around, just as another round of gunfire went off. One bullet made it to the sidewalk just between Don and Jake. Don took out his walkie talkie. "Shots fired, my location. Requesting backup now!"

"And medics." Jake added.

"What? Why? You hit?" Don asked.

"No. That first shot grazed Robin's leg."

"Damn." Don nodded. "And an ambulence. Repeat, backup and an ambulence."

There was a static-filled reply, followed by another round of gunfire. After a minute or two, a yell of pain came from the other side of the road after Jake and Don took their turns to fire their weapons.

"You think that was our boy?" Jake asked.

"Don't know, but seems like it. Stay here, keep an eye on Rob." He ordered.

"Yes sir." Jake nodded, moving back as Don hightailed it to the other side of the street. Shouting at a few other people who had been in the area to stay down. He spotted a man on the ground with a bullet wound somewhere in his abdomen. He was holding a gun. Don smirked. He had gotten the guy, after all. He raised his gun. "There some reason you shootin' at those nice people, pal?"

The man just glared up at him.

"Who are you workin' for?" Don continued.

No response.

"You keepin' your mouth shut isn't gonna help out your case."

The man smirked. "He'll kill you before you even have a chance at talking to me."

"Oh really?" Don smirked. "We'll see about that."

He waited, gun still trained on the man, until the medics and other police came. Don started calling orders. "We need information from him. He goes into the ambulence; the girl who got grazed is going in the next one, or she's coming with me in a squad car."

"Yes sir."

The orders were carried out, only to be interrupted again when a black car came speeding into the area. Don barely had time to register what was going on before it was confusion again. A gloved hand came out from the car's open window. Don started calling for the officers to shoot when he saw that whoever was in the other car was now pointing a gun around them. He had just finished bringing his gun back up when he heard the same yell of pain that he had heard seconds ago, then looked a few feet away, seeing that the man he had shot now had several other gunshots in him, judging by the red growing on the sheet over him. Don knew he wouldn't last another minute. Even thirty seconds was pushing it. "Goddamn it! Get the plate number! Get the number!" he barked as he watched the car retreating. When it was out of view, Don called if anyone had gotten it. He got several different partials. Once again, he was not a very happy man.


	10. New Plans

**A/N: Alright, this wasreally rushed, but like I said, I planned to have a couple of more chapters than I do now, so I kinda shortened and crammed stuff into this one. I know Flack agrees to joining the Rosses way too quick. Still, hope you enjoy.**

"Ow, Adam! Seriously, I'm fine, you're gonna make it worse!"

Mac laughed when he heard Robin's objection. He was impressed on how much they seemed mature- he figured that brought it down a bit. "What're you doing to the poor girl, Adam?" he asked, walking around the curtain that separated the large room into smaller sections.

"Fussing over my leg and it's pissing me off!" Robin replied, smacking Adam's hand when he reached to touch the area above the bandage. "Ads, I swear, touch it one more time-"

"I'm your brother, I'm supposed to worry!" Adam objected. "It's weird that the tables are turned now!"

Mac raised an eyebrow, then chuckled. He sighed afterwards. "Um, Robin, I know everything probably happened really fast, but can you tell me your side of the story with what happened?"

Robin shrugged. "Fine. I don't have anything to hide… ah." She grinned and shook her head. "How many times have you heard that?"

"Too many." Mac replied.

"Well, anyway, did Flack tell you about my friend Jill and my er… situation involving their bust?"

Mac nodded. "You got off lucky there, by the way."

"I know. Anyway, he dropped me off, Jake looked about ready to kill me… uh, sorry. Bad wording. Either way, I just passed him when the shots started going off. The second Jake shoved me inside, I got grazed. I know, weird timing, but I'm not lying."

Mac nodded. "Matches Jake's, which is also rare, but good in your case."

"Uh huh. Can I go home now?"

"Not done yet. What do you remember?"

"Huh?"

"Fill in the little details in your story. Make it a play by play. When the gunshots went of, what did you hear? What did the car look like? Close your eyes and try to remember."

"Uh. Okay… well, when the gunshots started going off, it was like something out of the movies. And I don't mean like, '80s action flicks, I'm talking like Michael Bay action going on. Guns going off, people screaming and ducking, me getting tossed inside… that's basically it."

Mac nodded. "Fine. Just… stay close, right?"

Robin paused. "Well, uh, I can't, really. I guess now the second I get outta here, Adam and I have to pack for Jersey."

Mac nodded. "Then just take it easy and make sure you're available 'til then."

"Yes sir."

One week later:

The case had barely progressed. License plated and cars were still being matched up, and they had only gotten the name of the suspect-turned-victim, John Sunamo. Robin had been cleared five days before. However, to her, it didn't quite feel like that because they had given her a cane. He had argued (and been pleased to find that Mac sided with her against the doctors) that if someone was after her, a cane wasn't going to help one bit. The doctors just replied that it wouldn't matter because if she would be chased, she'd just toss the cane and run if come need be. Mac gave in after seeing their point, but Robin still wanted to hurl the object at them. So now here she was, tossing various sweatshirts, pants and shirts into a bag. Half of her things were at Amber's and the other half were at Adam's. That made things complicated, but Robin pointed out a girl could always use extra space. She was so engrossed in trying to figure out how to pivot on the cane while tossing a couple of outfits in her bag she barely even noticed Don breeze right past her and flop down on the couch.

"Hey." He greeted.

Robin jumped, then sighed after realizing everythin was okay. "Jesus. What, did Amber give you a key, now?"

"No. She just went into the bathroom." Don replied. "…My Christmas was just ruined. How do you think yours will be?"

Robin raised an eyebrow, then looked at him, sprawled out, staring at the ceiling. "Alright. I'll bite. What happened?" She sat next to him.

"Well, my sister got into a fight with my dad, and my mom defended my dad, so now my sister got mad at mom, and because my mom got mad at my sister about it, my brother came to my sister's aid and now my whole family hates each other and my Christmas plans are cancelled." He replied, taking her cane from her and balancing it on his palm.

It had been like this the entire week that Robin was out of the hospital. When Flack got off work, he'd come over, collapse on the nearest piece of furniture, then tell her all of his little troubles, and she'd laugh at him or give him advice. Yes, it was dumb, but it was entertaining and each of them thought the other was good company for it, anyway.

"Seriously?" Robin laughed. "Nothing at all?"

"Zip." Don confirmed.

Robin shrugged. "Come with Adam and I, then, if Danny or Mac haven't invited you to theirs."

"No. Mac's leaving for his folk's soon, and Danny and Linds just want to be alone with Lucy. You serious about me coming with you?"

"Yeah. We may act like dorks, but we're cool on road trips. You'll get to meet the rest of the family. Not to mention my niece Lily, the one I told you that you'd love."

Don sat up, then looked her over, considering it. Adam did seem like a good guy, so what would it hurt meeting the people that brought him up- well, the good people who brought him up, at least. "Sure."

Robin laughed. "Just like that? No more considering?"

"Nope. Beats World War Three with my family."

"It can't be that bad."

"…Have you seen me angry?"

"Semi…?" Robin raised an eyebrow again.

Don snorted. "Oh, what you dealt with? Pft. That was like, a tenth of me angry. Now imagine that in full, then times that by five."

"Wow."

"Exactly. Now when do I pack?"

--

Three days later, Don, Adam and Robin were on their way to New Jersey. The first few minutes consisted of the three arguing about who would drive which legs of the trip, then about where to stop for lunch and bathroom breaks. After Adam had lost a coin toss on who was going to drive first, they piled in the car and had begun the drive.

Within hours, they pulled down a block.

Adam, who was now in the back, grinned. "Welcome to my mom's neighborhood, Flack."

Don glanced around at the large properties and equally large, modern houses. "…You're shitting me."

Adam laughed. "Nope. This is it, and that's the house." Adam pointed to the left sideof the block.

Don followed his finger's path, then spotted the house that they were pulling up to. It was like a larger version of the one from "Father of the Bride", and that was large to begin with. "I repeat, you're kidding me." He ook in more of the area, then saw how many cars were around. Don stopped counting after twenty. It was definitely like "Father of the Bride", now.

"Nope." Robin laughed. "You should see the backyard."

"No thanks. I'm afraid it will bruise my ego." Don replied.

"Poor thing." Robin put the car in park and turned it off. However, the second she did so, someone tapped on the glass.

"Who's the punk-" Don began, taking in the sight of the brunette man now beside the car, but was cut off and winced when Robin squealed upon seeing the man. He looked at Adam, only to fint that Adam was already out of the car. He raised an eyebrow when Adam slid across the car's hood in order to launch himself at the "punk" and hug him. Robin was also out of the car, and when Adam was done, she too threw her arms around the brunette's neck and seemed to refuse to let go. He got out of the car and waited for the three to stop talking excitedly. About six minutes later, he realized it wasn't going to happen anytime soon. After another couple of minutes, the brunette finally noticed him standing there. "Hi. Who's this. Rob, a new boyfriend?"

Robin laughed nervously, then blushed. "Uh, no, actually, he's-"

"Adam?" the brunette looked at Adam and raised an eyebrow.

Don snorted, then came to he realization the eyebrow-raise was the same as Robin's, down to the angle as well. They must be siblings. However, the way the man said "Adam" and what the question really was finally hit him, as it did Adam.

"Oh, oh, dude, no. I'm not… this is my coworker- and well, I guess you could say friend, Don Flack I've told you about, Char."

The brunette licked his lips, then smiled at Don. "Hi. I'm Charlie. Their brother. Well, half brother, for all I know. Sorry about that little thing there. I just haven't seen these two in ages, who knows what could've changed." Charlie Ross shook Don's hand.

Don nodded. "Understandable… kind of." He decided to ignore the "for all I know" comment.

Charlie nodded again, then looked between him and Robin, then turned to her once more. "Only friend? Really?"

Robin and Don blushed a shade darker. "Yes, Char." Robin nodded slowly.

"Really? 'Cause Tyler's here and-"

Don went tense a second later when Robin suddenly threw herself into his arms, now. He went wide-eyed and gaped at her.

Robin pressed closer to him. "Hello, Lover."

Don blinked, then looked at Adam and Charlie. "Let me guess, Tyler's some crazy ex-boyfriend who she doesn't want to deal with?"

"Uh huh." The other three nodded.

"So I was brought here to be the pretend boyfriend?" Don clenched his jaw.

Robin pulled back and smacked his chest. "I'm not that much of a bitch, Don! I invited you cause you wanted to come. I didn't know Tyler was coming!"

"She sucks at lying." Charlie backed her up.

Don laughed. "I know that much."

Charlie grinned. "How, dare I ask?"

Don snorted. "Oh, just that-" R

Robin covered his mouth with her hand.

On rolled his eyes and licked her hand in order to get her off. It got the desired reaction- until she wiped her hand on his face. He glared at her, and she glared right back.

Charlie looked between them, then let out a chuckle. "Alright, then. A quarter of the family's inside. They're all waiting- especially the kids. They wanna see their favorite cousins and aunts and uncles- because I mean jack shit to them." He added the last bit sarcastically, but with enough emotion in his voice to let them know he was joking after all.

Sure enough, to back up his story, about six children came out, calling for Adam and Robin.

Don just watched in amazement as Robin and Adam somehow picked up three kids and started talking to all of them at once. He would never be able to do that.

When the three Rosses headed towards the house, Don followed and finally caught a glimpse of people inside the house. There were ten or more visible, and that was just in the living room. He started sizing up the house and estimating a number of people inside- then he heard various cheers, yells and other things coming from inside. What he was going to have to deal with for the next couple of days finally hit him. "Oh God… what'd I get myself into this time?"


	11. Christmas Lights

**A/N: My computer had troubles the past couple of days, so here's one of two belated Christmas chapter. Hope you guys enjoyed Christmas. Enjoy the rest of the holidays.**

Don Flack expected many things when he entered the larger-than-life Ross home. Those things included seeing many nerdy looking people watching Star Trek, and maybe even a few wearing shirts from all of the shows like that. However, he saw average people he would expect to see on the city streets. There was only one thing that got to him. Aside from Charlie, there were absolutely no dark-haired people in the huge crowd inside. They were all blondes and redheads. Adam had the darkest hair out of all of them. "Whoa. Your family been to any Hitler conventions lately?" He asked.

Robin elbowed him, then grinned when a woman saw them and hurried over. "Aunt Isabella!" she closed the space between them and hugged the woman. "It's great to see you!"

"You too, sweetheart!" Isabella smiled, pulling away. "Adam, how are you, hon?" she asked, hugging the blonde man.

Adam laughed. "Good, Aunt Izzy. You?"

"Fine. Speaking of fine, who's this good-looking young man with yo? I haven't seen him before?" she looked Don over.

Robin laughed. "This is Adam and my friend, Don Flack. You haven't met him, no. Don, this is our aunt Isabella."

Don smiled and shook her hand. "Hi. Nice to meet you."

Isabella grinned. "Oh, a real New Yorker, judging by that voice."

"Born and raised, ma'am." Don replied.

"Oh, isn't that cute?" Isabella laughed, then looked at the three siblings. "Oh, Charlie, I didn't even see you behind everyone. Come here!" she elbowed her way through the same crowd and hugged the third man of the group.

Charlie laughed. "Great to see you, Aunt Isabella." He replied. "Where's Lily?"

"In the kitchen making cookies with Phil and Dave."

Charlie nodded. "See you guys in a couple of minutes, then." He went down one of the hallways of the house.

Don finally became aware of the ten or more people inside of the room now starting at him. He cleared his throat.

Adam laughed. "Oh, right, sorry. Uh, family, this is our friend Don Flack. Don, this is Aunt Abigail, then Aunt Ruthy, Uncle Tom, Uncle Dave, cousins Emma, Jean and Rita, Jack, Simon and Butch."

Don waved. "Hi, how ya doin?"

Most of the group smiled and greeted him, while Emma and Jean started muttering things to each other and giggling.

Don raised an eyebrow.

Robin leaned towards them. "Ignore them. They're like annoying little sisters. Come meet the rest of the bunch." She took his hand and led him down the same hallway Charlie had gone down.

"There are more?!" Don demanded, but let himself get dragged along anyway. He looked back at Adam, who just shrugged and nodded.

Don tossed back his head. "I thought this was gonna be a quiet day thing!"

"Nope." Adam replied.

"…Great."

Within about ten minutes, Don had been introduced to fifty more people. He even counted. Still, only he and Charlie were the only ones with dark hair. It bothered him a bit, too be quite honest. He was just looking at two high school graduation pictures of who he had to guess were Adam and Robin when he felt the tension in the area suddenly rise. It didn't take long for him to realize why.

"Mom!" Adam and Robin called, half-heartedly, and a tall, thin blonde woman came hurrying over to them.

"Oh, there you two are! I was getting worried!" She pulled the two into a hug, then looked at Don. "Who's this? He looks familiar."

"Don Flack, mom. You've seen him in a bunch of pictures of me. Don, this is our mom, Andrea."

Don nodded. "Hi. I've heard a lot about you."

"And I you, sir." Andrea replied, then looked at Robin and started fussing with her hair. "Rob, you should go clean yourself up. Tyler's here-"

"I know, mom. Stop. I broke up with the man. I really don't care if I look like I was in the car for three hours." Robin swatted her hands away.

"Oh, really, Robin, you should anyway."

"No, I'm fine, mom. I-"

"AUNTIE ROBIN! UNCLE ADAM!"

Robin's head went down, seeing a redhead running her way. "Lil!" Her smile was back as she picked up the little girl. "Don, this is our little niece, Lily, that I've told you about a couple of times."

Don nodded. "Hey, kiddo." He smiled at her.

Lily smiled at him, then looked at Robin. "I don't like him."

Don raised his eyebrows and snorted.

Robin practically dropped her. She put the little girl back down and nudged her towards the kitchen. "Go find your dad, sweetie." She straightened out. "She's six. She doesn't know better."

"Uh huh." Don smirked.

"Hey, Rob!"

Robin froze again and practically launched herself at Don. "It's Tyler."

Don nodded and used one of his arms to turn her around and pull her against him. "You owe me for this, just telling ya." He glanced further down the hall, and sure enough, there was yet another blonde, eyes locked on Robin, waving her down. The man's stride slowed and shortened the second Robin's back hit Don's chest. However, he kept coming.

"Rob! Hey, it's been too long!" Tyler greeted. "Adam, you too!"

Adam sent him a tight-lipped smile. "Yeah. Hi. How've ya been, Ty?"

"Fine. You guys?"

"Same." Adam nodded.

Tyler looked at Robin. "Well, judging by this guy, looks like you've been doing good, too."

Don grinned. "Hell yes."

Robin elbowed him lightly. "Tyler, this is my er, uh… boyfriend Don, and Don, this is my… uh… er…" she stumbled yet again..

"Ex boyfriend Tyler." Tyler finished, shaking Don's hand. "You better be taken care of our girl, huh?"

Don felt Robin tense up in front of him and pulled her closer. He had just passed off 'our girl', but he guessed like any other proud girl, Robin hated being labeled as anyone's belonging. "I plan to, pal."

"Good." Tyler nodded.

The four stood in an awkward silence for a while before Tyler mumbled an excuse to leave and slipped out.

Don was the first to speak. "Geez. What the hell did you do to him?"

"I broke up with him 'cause he was clingy. My mom still adores him. It's not my fault that my mom keeps inviting him back to these things so we can reconnect. Fat chance."

"And now you just put me in the middle?"

"…Kinda sorta?"

Don bowed his head and looked at her, then put his hands around her neck and shook it lightly. "You're a bitch, you know that? That's why we get along so well."

Adam rolled his eyes and sighed.

Don smirked, then looked around. "So where are we rooming?"

---

"…No."

Adam shrugged. "Flack, we don't have much of a choice."

"Ross, I will drop kick you. I'm not spending the night in a tent outside. It's thirty degrees!"

"I thought you were adventurous. It's not that bad. We can put the tents facing each other and put the fire pit between them. We have a bunch of blankets, too." Robin suggested.

"Correction form before: You're not just a bitch, you're a crazy bitch."

"Thank you. Anyway, this is better than sleeping in a crowded room, or even the living room with about four other people." Robin replied.

"It's a _tent_!" Don replied, pointing at one of the said objects that Andrea Ross had brought out for them. "That's a New Yorkers worst nightmare!" He pointed further into the backyard, where the lawn ended and woods began. "It's enough you have the wilderness back there! God knows what might come down from there!"

Robin snorted before disappearing into her tent. "Night, boys."

Don, not at all used to be cut off by a friend, let alone suspect, just gaped briefly.

Adam shrugged. "She got you there." He replied before going inside the other tent.

Don just stood there until he realized he was alone. "Oh, come on!" He went inside.

--

The next morning:

"Hey, Flack. Wake up."

Don twitched, then smacked the person poking him's hand. "Go away, Ross. I'm sleeping and it's Christmas Eve!"

"Exactly on that last part. The last two guys who get here have to put lights on the big tree. Come on." Adam jabbed Don's ribs with his foot.

"Since when were you so brave to mess with me like that?" Don replied without opening his eyes.

"I'm more comfortable around family. Now come on!" Adam yanked one of the six blankets that Don had off.

"What the Hell?!" Don finally sat up.

Adam raised an eyebrow.

Don frowned. "Fine. I'm only doing this 'cause I know you won't leave me alone." He got up. "Where's the tree?"

"Halfway across the yard that way." Adam replied, pointing to the right.

"Fine. Give me two minutes to get my shoes. Hopefully they didn't get carried away by a raccoon or anything."

"You're pathetic, Flack."

"Or I can just put my bare foot right up your ass, how'd you like that, Ross?"

"Going now."

Don laughed after hearing the zip of the tent flap go up, then down. He rolled over and fished around for his shoes, which he was surprised to find rather quickly. With some difficulty, he got to his suitcase and got dressed, jumping around to get everything on without knocking into any of the walls of the tent and sending the object falling to the side. He and Danny had camped once, and the results were disastrous. It took him ten minutes, but he succeeded and spotted Adam bringing a ladder from the nearby shed. He jogged to catch up with the man, then took the other side.

"Hey, ya made it. Tree's right over there."

" 'Kay. Now, you said last people here have to do this… where's your sister?"

"No, all the girls bake and cook today, including her. They make sure the kids don't kill each other, too."

"…You sexist bastards!" Don teased.

"Hey, it's tradition, and they don't mind." Adam replied.

" 'They', huh?"

"I hate you."

"Love you too, Ross."

"Don't say that. My cousin Rachel's here, and she goes crazy for slash stuff. Even if she's my cousin, she'll still go crazy if she hears a guy tell me he loves me, joking or in a brotherly way or not."

"And slash is…?"

Adam rolled his eyes in Don's direction. "Really?"

"No, seriously. What is it?"

"Think about what I just said. You said you loved me, you and I are…"

"…Law enforcement people?"

"Simpler."

"…Adults?"

"Are you really that dense? Try below the belt."

"…Oh."

"Yeah."

"…EW!"

"Uh huh."

"What does Rachel look like?"

"Blonde, skinny-"

"You just described every girl here." Don replied, setting down the ladder when Adam started to. "Where are the lights?"

Adam pointed at the long string of Christmas lights beside the tree. "Right there, you person who lives under a rock."

"Wow, Ross. So creative."

"I try."

"I suggest you stop."

"You know, nobody likes you, so shut up." Adam chuckled. "We invited you here, so you have to be nice."

"Oh, I am. I can give you about thirty numbers of girls who would agree."

"Keyword thirty, buddy. Not good odds. Hold the ladder steady, will ya?" Adam asked, getting the lights and starting to climb the ladder.

Don laughed. "Well, now that we're on the subject and I haven't really talked to you in ages, how's your love life, anyway?"

"And why would Mr. Popular Playboy care?"

Don shrugged. "Oh, I don't know, because we're stuck in an eight by eight tent together for a few days?"

"Fine. Well, truth be told, it's not."

"Ha. Even more reasons for you to spend time with me after this!"

Adam snorted. "Careful, Flack. Someone might think you're trying to get to my sister through me."

"…And if I am?"

Adam just about fell down one of the rungs. "What?!"

"I'm kidding, Ross."

"No you're not. I know your kidding voice! You just said it like when you asked for two hours when your sister was involved in the case, man! She's my sister! She's not one of your usual… conquests!"

"Conquests? Seriously? Ross, you need to keep away from those movies."

"You need to stay away from my sister, now."

"Can't. I'm her boyfriend whenever her ex is around now, remember?"

Adam mumbled something under his breath, then tossed the string of lights to the other side. "Coming down to put those over there. End of previous conversation, got it?"

"Aw, come on, Ross. You can't say she and I would-"

"My sister, Flack."

"But-"

"Put yourself in my shoes, man. Let's say I just expressed interest in… Sam, right? Said I wanted to date her, to you. You would say?" Adam got off of the ladder and waited for Don to answer as he made his way around the tree.

"Good choice." Don smirked.

"Your just saying that so you can win."

"No I'm not. I'm saying you have surprisingly good taste."

"Ha ha." Adam replied sarcastically. "Trust me. My sister is in a completely different league than you. She's not even interested."

"Oh, really? 'Cause I don't think that smile is appropriate for siblings to share, and it doesn't look like that snowball is meant for you."

Adam raised an eyebrow. "What?" he turned to Don and jumped slightly, not expecting Don to get hit by a snowball a second later. "Gah!" He looked in the direction it came from, just in time to see Robin point at Don and call 'Ha!'

Don shrugged and smirked at him.

Adam scoffed. "A snowball doesn't mean anything."

"Well, like I said, it's a bit disturbing if that flirty smile was meant for you." Don replied, bending down to scoop up a handful of snow. He made a snowball and threw it at Robin. "Your aim sucks!" He called.

Robin smiled, dodged his, and waved. "So does yours." She winked.

Adam twitched. No. That must've been his imagination. You're just thinking about it because Flack mentioned it. He attempted to reassure himself, but found the feat was useless, and it was getting worse, now that a full-fledged snowball fight had broken out between the two. However, what he figured was a stray hit him, so he snapped out of his thoughts. The kid in him wanted to fight back, but the brother in him was ready to kill Don for the whole Robin situation as well as the hit, but he realized that now Don and Robin were too far away to have hit him either way. He looked over and there were Charlie and Lily in the middle of their own. One of theirs must've hit him. "Hey!" His kid side won the fight. "Ay! You hit me, you jerks!" He made his own snowball and threw it at Charlie, hitting the man square in the forehead.

Charlie tossed a return one back. "Then keep returning the favor!"

Adam laughed, then ran over to them, scooping up Lily and running around with her. "Ha, Charlie! I have a hostage now!"

"You can keep her, Little Brother!" Charlie called back, tossing another snowball.

Adam put her down. "Fine!"

A few more snowballs were exchanged before Adam and Charlie were kneeling on the ground, throwing snowballs at each other at close range. After a while, all three of them were laying on the ground, observing the other snowball fight going on. Adam twitched yet again when Don grabbed Robin around the waist and leaned back, sending them both down to the ground, laughing all the way. "Oh, you gotta be kidding."

Charlie laughed. "What? They're playing the part."

"You weren't with us about fifteen minutes ago. He told me he was interested."

"Oh really?" Charlie grinned even more at the new information. "Well, she looks genuinely interested herself."

"It's the eyes and accent. Duh… and who's side are you on?! I'm your brother!"

"Hey, we've been over this! I could only be your half brother after mom-"

"Whatever. You're still my brother, which means you should be on my side."

"I'm her brother, too!" Charlie laughed. "She looks seriously happy. You want her to be happy, right?"

"Of corse I do, just… you don't know Flack."

"Give him a chance."

"Again, you don't know him."

"And you only know one side of him. Get to know him more after this. Let him make a move on Robin."

Adam glared at him.

Charlie clapped him on the back. "Ah, listen. But if he breaks her heart within these few days…" He pointed back at the tree. "We strangle him with the lights." He proposed.

Adam grinned. "Deal, but my boss will kill me… no pun intended… Well, Mom might kill us if we don't put them up, so why don't you help me finish those?"

Charlie nodded and got up. "Sure. Let's go."

"So you'll seriously help me kill Flack?"

"That's a little concerning you sound hopeful, Brother."

"Oh, shut up and help me!" Adam tossed him part of the string. "Merry Christmas Eve, jerk."


	12. What Do You Miss?

**A/N: Heh. Sorry for the wait. I got a new job that takes up a good amount of my time and a friend of mine died, so it's been tough getting in an updating mood. It's still a Christmas chap… well, it is the Christmas chap. Cough Anyway, what happened to my reviewers? I've only gotten reviews from the two people on here I know in person! I'm not feeling the love. Let me know what you guys think. In the meantime, enjoy. This chap's more fluff, the action will come back in a couple of chaps.**

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Robin turned around when she heard footsteps coming down the stairs behind her on Christmas morning. She smiled, seeing it was Don. His hair was dishevled and he had a dopey expression she had never seen on him. "Ha ha, hey, Don. Merry Christmas. You alive in there?"

Don mumbled something that she took as Merry Christmas, due to the amount of grunts, before he collapsed on the couch. He shifted to get comfortable, then mumbled something against the pillow.

The group had been able to come into the house for the nights and sleep in the living room the previous night. Most of the Ross' family and friends had left for their own homes or other peoples homes to celebrate the rest of the holiday elsewhere.

Robin laughed again. "What was that?"

Don lifted his head. "Where is everyone? They all leave on Christmas? What's the point of staying with family until Christmas Eve night?"

Robin shrugged. "It's just tradition. Christmas Eve belongs to the whole family, while Christmas belongs to immediate family… and the poor bastards who got hooked into coming with part of an immediate family."

Don grunted a response and turned over onto his back, putting his arm over his eyes to block out the sunlight that was bouncing of everything covered in the fresh coat of snow outside. "So when do the kiddies come barreling down the stairs to open Santa's presents?"

"You're in luck. Lily's the only 'kiddie' opening them this time. Otherwise, it's just adults."

The two turned towards the new voice. It was Charlie. The brunette man smiled, planting a kiss on Robin's cheek. "Merry Christmas, Rob, Don."

"You too." The others replied.

Suddenly, a rather loud snore reminded all of them that they weren't alone. Adam was sprawled out on the opposite couch, fast asleep.

Don snorted. "He snores? Who knew?" He laughed. Unfortunately for him, he was too busy caught up in the fact that he knew something about Adam that Stella didn't know, he didn't see the blur of orange and blue coming his way. He barely had time to realize the blur was Lily, the six-year-old girl who had voiced her disdain for him, before she landed right on his lap- all fifty five pounds of her. His eyes went wide and he had to clamp down on his lip hard to keep the line of profanities from escaping his mouth.

Lily righted herself, looked at him like he was at fault for being in the spot that she was going to jump. She "hmph"ed, then grinned, seeing Adam on the other couch. "UNCLE ADAM, UNCLE ADAM!"

Adam bolted upright. "Where's the fire?! I didn't start it, I swear!" He looked around, realizing that there was nothing to worry about, and blushed furiously. "Hey, sweetheart. Merry Christmas." He pulled her into his lap.

Robin, who had been laughing with Charlie, went over to Don. "Hey, are you okay?"

"…No! You turn into a man, change places with me and see how it feels when you have _that_ land _there_." Don replied through clenched teeth, nodding at his crotch. He doubled over as well. "The kid hates me. She knew I was there. She did that on purpose."

Robin laughed again. "Sweetie, you're competing with a six-year-old and saying she's evil." She moved his legs, more roughly than intended, causing Don to grunt in pain. She smiled innocently and sat down, then scooted so he could put his feet up on the couch arm again.

"I hate you so much right now." Don grumbled.

"Oh, come on, I got you a Christmas present! You can't hate me after knowing that." Robin argued.

"Watch me." Don replied.

Lily, not thrilled that the attention was off of her, jumped out of Adam's lap. "I wanna open presents! Daddy! Why can't we open them?!"

"We have to wait for Grandma, hon." Charlie replied.

"But _why_?" Lily whined.

" 'Cause they want to open presents too, of course!" Charlie shrugged.

Lily pouted. "Fine!"

"Heh. Stinks for you, don't it?" Don smirked at the little girl.

Lily frowned at him. "I hope that your wee-wee hurts until New Years, then." She stuck out her tongue at him.

Don's smirk dropped and he looked like he was about to get hit by a bus, Adam was gaping at the girl, and Robin clapped her hand over her mouth, both to hide her shock as well as keep from laughing. Charlie had a similar look to Don. In just about two seconds flat, the girl's father was across the room. "Okay, Lil. How's about you and I go see about Christmas breakfast, huh?" He picked her up and bolted out of the room in record time.

Don watched him, then stared up at the ceiling. "Did a six-year-old honestly just say that to me?"

Robin let out a squeak from her failed attempt at choking back a laugh, causing her to clamp her hand closer to her mouth.

Adam laughed. "Heh, yeah… that's uh… partially my fault. You see, Char and Lily were over once when my friend and I were watching "Kindergarten Cop" last year, and the whole 'boys have a penis, girls have a vagina' thing was on, and she overheard it and asked Charlie about it and he uh… came up with that, 'cause he sucks at lying, and-"

"Shut up, Ross. Why are we even talking about anatomy?" Don asked.

"You brought it up." The siblings replied in unison, then smiled at each other, happy with their mini-victory. Don, on the other hand, was disturbed.

Andrea Ross came down the stairs. "What about anatomy?"

Adam and Robin blushed a similar shade of red. "Nothing, mom. Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas to you, too- and you, Donald."

"Don, please, Mrs. Ross." Don interjected. "Donald's my father."

Andrea grinned. "Aren't you cute. Where's Charlie?"

"Kitchen with Lily." Robin replied.

Andrea nodded. "Charlie, Lily, I'm up! Let's get these presents open, shall we?" she called.

When Don heard small footsteps on the wood floor, he yanked Robin half on top of him as a precaution, then just glared as Lily went around the couch this time to get to the other couch. She sat between Adam and Charlie. "That's just not _fair_."

"That's life, hon." Robin replied, getting off of him.

Don shot her a dirty look, then sat up. He found it was still painful to do so. "Geez."

"Me first, me first!" Lily insisted, bouncing up and down on the couch.

Andrea chuckled. "Go ahead, dear."

Lily beamed. "I'll open yours first, grandma!" She ran over to the Christmas tree, then after some searching, found a medium-sized package wrapped in pink wrapping paper that had polar bears on it. "Aww!" She started opening it right off the bat, then made a rather loud gasp.

Don winced, waiting for what he knew was to come. Sure enough, a high-pitched squeal followed.

Robin smacked his arm. "Be nice, my niece is happy. What you get, Lil?"

"Lemme guess, a Hannah Montana CD and sweatshirt." Don interjected, earning him and elbow to the ribs, which caused the poor man even more pain.

"No, it's a Hannah Montana CD and_ Camp Rock _sweatshirt!" Lily replied, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at Don. The defiance didn't last long, because Lily grinned a moment later. "Thank you, grandma!" She went over to Andrea and hugged her.

Andrea smiled. "Oh, you're welcome, sweetheart. Now, you can be Santa this year. Who gets their present next?"

"Auntie Robin!" Lily replied.

Robin laughed. "Oh, me, huh?"

Lily nodded rapidly. "Daddy always taught me 'ladies first'."

"That ain't all he taught you." Don mumbled, managing to intercept and stop the incoming shot at his stomach this time.

Lily went back to the tree and picked up a small present wrapped in blue paper. "Here!"

Robin took it. "From… Ads!" She smiled up at her brother, and then opened it, smiling slowly, seeing it was a photo album. She flipped it open, then clapped. "Oh my God! These are the photos from last Summer in Florida!"

Adam nodded. "The ski trip's in there too, and a few of the new ones."

Robin grinned, got up, and hugged him. "Thanks, Little Bro."

Adam laughed. "I promise that's not it, either. I honestly forgot the other thing back home."

Robin shot him a look. "Uh huh."

Adam threw his arms out. "What? I'm serious."

"Suuuuure." Robin smirked.

"Oh, shut up, Robbie!"

--

Most of the presents were distributed within the hour, until there was one left. Robin was the one to get it. "And Don, finally, this one's for you."

Don raised an eyebrow. "Really? Way to make me feel like an ass, I didn't get you guys anything."

"Oh well. This one benefits everyone you deal with as opposed to you, anyway."

Don raised an eyebrow, then opened the thin package. "…It's a tie." He smiled; praying that no one would notice it was completely fake. "I needed a new one."

Lily frowned. "No you didn't, you hate it."

"Shut it, Smurf!" Don snapped, jabbing a finger at the girl. He was silent for another couple of moments, then shook his head. "Yeah, she wins. What is this?"

Robin laughed. " It's not just another tie. It's a _solid_ blue tie. Not one of those ugly patterned ones that you have that make people want to vomit."

"They're supposed to be like that so suspects are distracted." Don replied, not meeting her eyes with his own.

"Then change your tie on the way to kick ass, Donnie." Robin shot back, sending Charlie an apologetic look when he covered Lily's ears. "Don't be an ungrateful little punk." She restated, making up for her cursing.

"That's my line." Don replied.

"Who cares?" Robin grinned.

Don raised his eyebrows, then started poking her sides.

Robin squealed, trying to block him. "No! Get away-eep-ticklish!"

"Exactly." Don smirked, poking her more.

While Charlie and Andrea watched the two with a twinkle in their eyes while Adam and Lily had looks of equal distaste. Charlie leaned over and elbowed Adam. "She's happy."

"She's our sister." Adam argued.

Andrea sighed after a while. "Alright, who's hungry?"

--

Breakfast went fast, as did the hours before lunch. The entire morning consisted of Lily manipulating Don into playing the Monopoly game that Santa had gotten her- and he was regretting every second.

"I win!"

Don's jaw dropped. He had just won fair and square against the seven-year-old, but she was saying _she_ did. "What do you mean?! I just did!"

"Nu-uh! The loser always wins! It's the rule I made up! Daddy let's me play that way! I always beat Uncle Adam!"

"He's easy to beat, either way," Don pointed out.

"I still won," Lily argued.

Don growled. "You little shit."

"Ya know, usually I'd be upset about you saying that to my niece, but being that my brother's said worse, I'm not gonna argue."

Don looked back, seeing Robin approaching from behind him.

She smiled, then crossed her arms and put them across his shoulder blades, leaning over him. "So what did you get him with, sweetheart?"

"Broadway," Lily replied.

"Oh! You take after me!" Robin smiled. "Broadway and Park Place are my secret weapons- well, they're everyone's, if you really think about it.

Don growled again. "That's it! you're using my friend against me, that's the last straw. " he grabbed the back of Robin's thighs and stood up, so Robin ended up going with him since she latched her arms and legs around his neck and waist respectively in order not to fall back. "Don, what are you doing?!"

"Getting away from Devil Girl and taking you with me!" Don replied, getting a better hold on her before walking out with her on his back. He walked into the kitchen and set her down on the counter, not noticing that Adam was inside until the blonde spoke up.

"Your shrieking sounds like a dead cow, sis,"

"You _are_ a dead cow, Ad," Robin replied.

Adam gasped in mock anger, took the piece of pie he was eating and stalked off.

Don clapped. "Bravo. Very mature,"

Robin curtsied "I know," She hesitated, then snorted. "Wait a minute- 'very mature' says the guy who's arguing with a six year old." She slid off the counter and walked over to the fridge.

"I'm telling you, she's the She-Devil under all that red hair and smile."

Robin rolled her eyes and reached into the back of the fridge. "You want a beer?"

Don raised an eyebrow. "Beer on Christmas? Really?"

"Fine. Egg nog works just as well."

"Now we're talkin'." Don replied. "Glasses?"

"Top shelf in the right corner."

Don went into the cabinet and got the glasses, turning them right side up on the counter. "I haven't had this stuff in years." He told her.

Robin laughed. "Then you suck at celebrating Christmastime."

Don chuckled and shrugged. "Can't argue there. Cheers." He raised the glass to hers, then took a wig. "Yeah. I've missed this stuff."

"I'll thank my mom for having it in the fridge, then." Robin winked at him. "Much better than beer. So what else were you deprived of lately?"

"Too much." Don replied. "I should ask you the same with those crazies out there, huh?"

Robin sighed. "Had to bring it up on Christmas, huh?"

Don shrugged. "Well, it's the end of the day, isn't it? Might as well. Everything's dead here, anyway."

"Another odd thing to say on Christmas." Robin replied.

Don shot her a look. "Trying to make conversation here."

Robin laughed and took a drink from her glass. "Fine… what am I deprived of… not being paranoid while walking down the street."

Don snorted. "You'd have that in New York either way."

"True, but my point still stands… not having paranoia with a bunch of things is really what I'm deprived of. Now, I asked you first."

"Not much. I just miss the stuff."

"Oh, come on. You're a cop."

"Damn you. Fine. I'm like you, then. I miss not being worried about getting mauled by a suspect when my back's turned, free time… yeah, that's it."

"Liar." Robin smirked.

"Same to you, babe." Don winked before draining his own glass.

Robin shrugged. "Well, you have Mac and Danny to back you up. I have Adam, my girlfriends, and Paulo and Steve on the days I work… those guys aren't really good to have my back." She took the two glasses and

Don tossed up his hands.

Robin laughed. "What?"

"You've got Mac, Danny and me, too."

"For how long, though?" Robin asked.

Don frowned, not liking the direction the conversation had suddenly taken. "A while. If you're a Ross, you're stuck with us. Crime lab policy." Don replied, getting up

"And how exactly do I know you'll follow up on that?" However, before she knew it, he had closed the gap between them and kissed her.

After a few seconds, they broke away. "That's how." He replied.

All Robin could do was blink at him. "Um…" However, as if the kiss wasn't enough for her to process, she heard a familiar "ewww" behind her. Both Robin and Don turned, just in time to see Lily and Adam standing in the kitchen doorway. Adam looked like he was about to get hit by a bus, and Lily looked at Robin like she had betrayed her. "Um… hi, guys."

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**A/N: Horrible cutoff point, hahaha. Anyways, where are my reviewers? Are you still out there? Tell me what you thought. **


	13. Caught

**A/N: Sorry for the huge wait. College and a bunch of other stuff weighed me down. Anyways, enjoy this chapter. The case related action will start up in the next chapter. Review, let me know you guys are still out there, reading and interested.**

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Don pulled back from Robin and scoffed. Naturally, Adam had to walk in with the Devil in Training dragging behind him. He wondered if bad timing was a family trair or just an Adam Ross thing. The tech always had a knack for walking in at the wrong moment- with varying context on that front. "Ross…." He greeted.

Adam gawked, then snapped out of it. "Flack," He nodded, then looked at Robin. "Uh… Rob, can I talk to you… please?" He looked at Flack. "…Alone?"

Don chuckled. "Aw, I thought you liked me, Adam."

Adam frowned, then looked at Robin. "Please?" He headed for the living room.

Robin turned her attention back to Don. "…Well…"

Don chuckled. "Well," He looked down. "Better go see your brother before he has a heart attack over the fact that the geek's protective big sister was caught kissing the quarterback."

Robin arched an eyebrow at him. "You know about that comparison?"

Don's smile stayed put. "Adam makes his analogies very, very known… loudly." He explained.

Robin chuckled, then ran her hand down his chest before pushing off of him to go after Adam. She had just turned when she hesitated and turned back. She pulled Don down for another, deeper kiss. The detective returned it and moaned his approval.

When she pulled back, he smirked. "I'm counting on that being a promise that this isn't over." He told her, reaching down and giving her two front belt loops a quick tug.

Robin returned the smirk. "Definitely a promise." She replied before going back into the living room. She leaned on the wall opposite the one her brother was leaning on. Upon seeing his usual nervous, awkward smile, she sighed and crossed her arms and crossed her legs as well. "He's a good guy, Ads."

Adam sighed. "I know. I dragged you back in here more for my peace of mind, thank you very much. I mean, you guys weren't having sex or anything, but…" He sighed. "I haven't ever been on this side of the talk. I just want to make sure you know what you're getting into and all that fun stuff."

"I do. You know just as well as I do that I can hand him his ass if he hurts me in any way." Robin replied.

Adam laughed. "Way to make me paranoid he's gonna hurt you now."

Robin laughed and patted his cheek. "Fresh. Don't, or that's gonna screw up work. Like I said, he's good guy. He's been nothing but sweet to me."

Adam sighed. "I know. I'm just in brother mode now that he's sweet on you." He replied.

Robin reached up and put her arms around his neck. "Come here, Ads. Love you,"

Adam chuckled and returned the hug. "Love you too, Robbie. Now, you gonna run back to Lover Boy back there or are you gonna get him back in here?"

"Choice two…"

The siblings turned around to see Don turn around the back doorway and come into the room.

Adam's smile faded. "How much of that did you hear?"

Don shrugged. "Last half. Both of your voices carry like crazy." He leaned back against the wall. "Adam, for the record, even if this does go somewhere and ends later, I don't plan to be an ass to her. It'll be fine, and we'll be civil."

Adam looked from him to Robin, who shrugged. He returned to Flack, and sighed. "Things might change, man. You never know. Point is you hurt her, you die."

Don laughed. "I respect that Adam, but even you said I can hand you your ass back-"

Adam cut him off. "Robin and I know people, Flack- if you catch my drift."

Don laughed harder. "You Rosses- possibly the most quiet, innocent family I've ever seen… 'know people'? Right, Adam. Nice try,"

Adam shrugged. "You don't know the guys who our dad played poker with us. They gave a damn about us. They were more like dads to us than our real dad. They knocked my dad around for giving me a black eye once."

Don let out one final laugh, and this time, Adam joined him. The tech simply patted Don's arm before heading towards his room. Don's smile faded. "He makes it sound like you guys have mob connections.."

Robin shrugged. "Not many people believe that."

Don frowned now. "Wait, you mean you do?"

Robin grinned, then kissed his cheek. "I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you… or get someone to do it. Goodnight, Don." She took his hand and squeezed it before heading off as well.

Don stared off after her, then let out a disbelieving chuckle. That was two people backing up the 'know people' comment. Just what had he gotten himself into there? They were just pulling his leg, right? "Robin…?" No response. "Robin?" He repeated. Still no response. _Well, crap._

CSI CSI CSI

The rest of the night passed, and by the time the next morning, rolled around, the three of them were huddled on the couch in front of the television in the den, flipping back and forth between the movie channels. They were starting to get bored fairly fast and were about to settle for getting a few hours' head start on packing when Andrea came in. "Adam, Robin, someone just pulled up in a taxi. Blonde, glasses, kind of lanky… you know anyone who fits that description?"

The three looked at each other. "…Danny?" Adam got up. "I'll check, you guys just hang here."

Lily skipped into the room. "Uncle Adddaaaaammm! Daddy said there's some guy named Danny here to see you guys!"

Robin nodded. "We heard, sweetie,"

Don stepped forward. "Show me, Squirt."

Lily glared at him. "I was telling Uncle Adam and Aunt Robin."

Don shrugged. "I know Danny better. Come on, show Uncle Don." Don replied.

"You're not my uncle." Lily countered.

Adam rolled his eyes. "Just show him, Kiddo. If it is Danny, he doesn't like being kept waiting."

"No, I don't."

The group in the room turned, seeing Danny standing in the archway, with Charlie behind him.

Don grinned. "Danny! What're you doing here, Christmas night, no less?"

Danny shrugged. "Figured you could use a break from these pyschos." Danny replied, tossing his arms around the Ross siblings. "Merry Belated Christmas to you all, by the way. Was Santa good?"

"Very," Don replied, with a smirk and a glance towards Robin.

Danny arched an eyebrow, then looked at Robin, who went pink in the cheeks, then Adam, who looked mortified. "Ah… no! You two? Get outta town! I hope it was semi-PG rated and you guys didn't do the nasty in this nice lady's house."

"Nothin' that far. Started last night, and that's all the info you're getting." Don replied.

"Agreed to stop until the ride home, at least." Adam added.

Danny turned to Robin and tossed his arm around her before pulling her against his side. "Well, Mazel tov for that, because if he looked at you funny one more time I was gonna take to locking you two in closets, and if that didn't work, I was just gonna drag you to every outing with other friends until someone else got interested." He dropped a kiss on the forehead, overexagerrated 'mwah' sound as he did so. "I love you that much already, Phoenix."

"Love you too, Danno." Robin patted his stomach.

"Aw. Well, Mazel Tov to both of yas. Now, I've been on a train and in a cab the last few hours… let's go sit down, watch a movie, or go get drunk outta our minds."

"Last one sounds fun." The others chimed in.

"Awesome, then let's go."

CSI NY CSI CSI NY CSI NY CSI NY

The last couple of days went fast, and before they knew it, the three of them had packed up, and were back on their way to the city. They barely even made it, between the siblings arguing over directions, Danny's jokes getting worse by the mile, and Don annoying each and every one of the others, simply because he could. They dropped Danny off to a very relieved Lindsay- "you shouldn't have just disappeared like that right after Christmas just with a note reading 'Gone to rescue Flack, be back soon, love you.' Don had a field day with that one before the siblings managed to drag him back to the car. Don was next, with Adam's request of him and his sister not 'being mushy' during their goodbye, and then the siblings returned to Adam's apartment. They unpacked, then separated from there. Amber had suggested it was time to catch up and compare Christmas gifts, so she walked over.

What she didn't count on, however, was finding out that 'catching up' just meant spilling about what happened with Don. She didn't mind, of course, but she was basically looking for the typical, girly 'So what'd you buy at insert-shop-here yesterday?'

Amber leaned back in her chair. "So, tell me. Is James Bond as… good as he looks? Cause he looks like he can bring it."

Robin scoffed. "A, nothing past second base… well, first if we're going by your bases, B, you're such a creep, and C… yes. Yes he is."

Amber let out a laugh that was more of a shriek. "Oh my God, you two are adorable. I expect godchildren, I hope you know that. I call the girl's middle name."

"Okay, Amb… oh, phone." Robin reached down and took her cell phone. "Oh, speak of the Devil…"

Amber got up. "Flack? Answer your boyfriend. Now."

Robin rolled her eyes, then answered the phone, trying to jerk away when Amber pressed her ear to the other side. "Hey, what's up?"

"Hey, Rob. Look, I was wondering… well, since we have this… thing a bit backwards… you wanna get dinner with me tomorrow night, say, eight-ish?"

Robin glanced at Amber, who had been reduced to a grinning, flailing mess. "Uh… sure. Where?"

"You call it," Don offered.

Robin grinned. He knew the moves. Good. "… Paulo's? I promise he won't hang around and be protective no matter how much Adam pays him… I don't know about the other guys though."

"I'm willing to take a chance. Alright, Paulo's, around 8… so… I'll swing by Adam's place around then? You don't mind walking, do you?"

"Hey, we made it last time and we screwed up getting there about eleven times, so… yeah, we'll be fine." Robin laughed.

"Fantastic. I'll uh… see you then?"

"See you then," Robin chorused. "Bye," She hung up the phone, then tossed the phone aside, casting a glance at Amber, who was still beaming. "I'm going out with Don Flack tomorrow." She let out her own squeal as Amber grabbed her hands and started jumping up and down.

Once Amber was done with her fit of happiness for her friends, she stepped back. "Okay. Get a notebook out so we can plan. Tomrrow, we're getting you all pretty and getting you a new dress or something, because like I said, I'll cry for the sake of the universe if you guys don't get married and have at least five gorgeous kids."

"…Five?"

"Shut up. I'm excited. Now, first thing we do is start on Fifth Avenue…"


	14. Shadow

**A/N: Please excuse the giant wait. I'll try not for it to happen again. Life just got hectic and… bleh. This is more to bring it back, so please excuse the quality and random time skip/super lame middle scene, and length of the chapter. I'll get to the rest of it soon.**

* * *

The week after flew by for everyone. In Don and Robin's case, it was three dates, apartment hunting on Robin's part with Don tagging along, the best New Years kiss either of them had in a couple of years, and several make out sessions- two of which both Adam and Danny walked in on. While Adam voiced his protest in garbled syllables before covering his eyes and moving to the next room, Danny just winked at them and offered a thumbs up before following the younger man.

For their fourth date, Don had reluctantly agreed to go to Paulo's restaurant again with her. He wasn't thrilled at all, being that their first date that they spent there consisted of him and Robin trying to carry on a conversation with Paulo and staring them down from the corner the whole time. Both chefs had the excuse that Adam put them up to playing chaperone for the date. Don took the excuse, but he was still put off by Adam still not trusting him with his older sister. Then again, it had been ages since he had made it to the fourth date with any girl he showed interest in as of late, so he was willing to be open. That alone had him waiting in front of Adam's door at seven at night.

"She's finishing up gettin' pretty for ya." Adam reported as he opened the door. "Come on in, sit." He motioned for him to come in.

Don nodded and walked in. He barely had time to so much as get to the couch before Robin came out of the bathroom, fiddling with her ponytail. She dropped it when she spotted Don. "Oh, hey, didn't expect you to be here so soon."

Don smirked. "What, you still don't know I'm punctual?" He proceeded to check her out in the little black dress she was wearing and winked at her. "Hey." He pulled her close and kissed her.

Adam rolled his eyes. "Okay, that's enough, you two. I let you in, but that's where I draw the line. Get lost."

Don mock-saluted, then headed out the door.

Robin kissed her brother on the cheek. "See ya later." She hurried after Don. He turned to let her catch up, and when she did, she hooked her fingers in his shirt collar and pulled down so she could kiss him. "Since my brother interrupted us saying 'hi'…"

"You won't hear me complaining." Don replied, taking her hand in his. "So, we goin' back to Paulo's?" He asked as they made it out of the building.

Robin laughed. "Your call, now. I won't put you through it again."

"Good. Then my turn. Come on." Don took her hand and started leading her down the stairs.

"Where are we headed?" Robin asked.

"Hey, you got a friend connection in the food business, I have a family friend in one. Pure American though. No fancy Italian."

"I'm a little afraid of this place if Paulo's is 'fancy' in your book."

"It's fine. Come on, trust me." Don grabbed her hand and tugged on her hand to get her to speed up her pace. "Hey, it's better than the dirty water hot dog I bought you when you first came here."

"Still not sure."

"Come on_, Phoenix._"

"That's hotter when Danny calls me it."

"Oh, that's just plain _low_."

* * *

After dinner, the closed, Robin burst out laughing. "Interesting friends. That's all I can say. Now I see where the personality comes from, though."

"Learned from the best, and Bobby, Louise and Trent are definitely some of the best."

"I'll bet." Robin leaned into him, and then glanced behind her. She had noticed someone trailing them a while back after they had left the restaurant. She had brushed it off at first- New York City was both big and small, the guy could've been heading to his apartment by Don's, but she had started to notice him stopping and trying to disappear into the crowd when they stopped for various reasons. He kept back a block, and she had to wonder if he was going to try anything.

"Robbie…!"

Robin glanced at Don, and saw he was he was staring at her with an eyebrow raised. "What…?"

Don smiled. "You zoned out on me there. Everything okay?"

Robin laughed, sparing another glance behind them. Their follower had stopped again. Was he one of the ones who was after her? Had he seen Don's face? He was probably after her, but what about him? What would happen if he went after her any moment? "I uh… fine."

Don frowned, but dropped it for the moment, then motioned at the apartment complex next to them. "Alright, well, here I am. You good on your own to get to Adam's or Amber's or…?"

"I um…" She glanced behind them again, and when Don went to follow suit, she launched herself at him and kissed him hard to stop him. She tried not to sigh in relief when it got the job done. Great. Now that all that was left was keeping it up. She let go of him.

Don pulled back and put her at arm's length. "Not that I'm complainin', Babe, but…"

"What if I didn't exactly didn't want to go back tonight?" Robin asked, stepping closer again and bit her lip.

The lightbulb seemed to go off in Don's head. His frown turned into a smirk. "Seriously… you mean?"

"I mean," Robin nodded, then offered a reassuring smile.

Don's smirk only grew, figuring her uneasiness had been dropping that suggestion on him. "Then who am I to deny a girl a request, huh?" He pulled her in for another kiss, then took her hand and led her inside.

* * *

The next morning, Don woke up at the sound of his phone ringing. He glanced to the side to find his jeans on the floor, then pulled them over to pick up his phone and answer it. "Flack,"

"_Flack? Flack! Is Robbie with you?" _

Don sat up. "Adam?"

"_Yeah, Flack, please tell me Robin's with you. Just… Oh God please. I don't really wanna know the details if she is, but please tell me she's with you. Please" _

Don squeezed his eyes shut, trying to sort out whether it was just his mind still waking up or if Adam was as panicked as he sounded. "Yeah, Ad, she's…" He looked to the side at where she had been laying last he checked. "Uh…" He glanced back at his nightstand. The clock read noon. "Hold on, buddy." He pulled himself out of bed, then got up to check in the kitchen to no avail, and the same went for the bathroom. "No, no she's not…" He went back into the kitchen, then spotted a note on the counter. "Oh, hold on…"

_**Don-  
Sorry I'm not gonna be there when you wake up, but Amber got a text from me to go do some emergency girl talk at her place. Be back asap. Promise. **_

_**-Robbie**_

Don sighed. "There's a note here. She said she's at Amber's place."

"_Oh, oh God. Well, she's not." _

Don shook his head. Yeah, he sounded panicked. "Adam, slow down, how do you know that? Is everything okay?"

"Uh, no, Flack. No it's not, because Robin's not at Amber's place, Flack. I am, and so is Amber's dead goddamn body!"

Don frowned and narrowed his eyes. "What…?"

"Amber's dead, Flack. The team and I are here, and I'm twenty feet away from her body that has a knife sticking out of her throat, and now… she was supposed to come here? I… oh God. Where is she…?" Adam broke off in a whimper.

Don's heart sunk and he turned on his heel to start gathering clothes to put on. "Hold on. Have you tried calling her…?"

"_OF COURSE I'VE TRIED FUCKING CALLING HER!" _

Don flinched. He had never heard Adam curse ever. Sure, it was clearly a stupid question, but he was just trying to understand now. "Adam, just… hang in there. I' on my way…" He pulled his shoes on.

After a moment, Adam finally seemed to control his breathing. "… Please check Paulo's, just in case?"

"Yeah, course. Adam? Just… we'll figure this out, alright? Maybe everything's okay."

"How can it be okay when Amber's dead and you just told me that my sister got a text to go to her place and there are crazy people out for blood after her?" Adam demanded, but once again, he sounded absolutely petrified.

"Adam, it… … I'll be there soon, alright? Take a couple of deep breaths."

"… Did nothing that I just said get through to you?"

"Adam, I'm hanging up now. I'll go check Paulo's, then I'll be right over."

"… Yeah, yeah."

Don heard the other line go dead, then inhaled sharply. He got all of his things that he needed, then practically threw open the door, nearly colliding with two people in the process. He was about to push off and mutter an apology before one of them caught his arm.

"Wait, Detective Flack!"

Don turned back to the two, then recognized the pair as the two he had been sent after. "Paulo? … Stefan?"

"Just Steve," Steve corrected. "Robin's in trouble." He forced out.

Don took another deep breath. "What do you two know? And how'd you know I life here?"

"She got shove into car by due uomini," Paulo replied hurriedly.

"And Robin told us a little while back." Steve added. "Do you and your people know anything?"

Don put his hands up. "Hold on," He looked at Steve. "Alright, due I know- it means two, but… uo…?"

"Men," Steve explained. "We were on our way to the place we usually get some of our supplies from, and we just happened to see her, and…"

Don waved his hands. "Save it. Both of you come with me."

"Where to?" Steve asked.

"Crime scene. One of Robin's friends has been murdered." Don explained, then pushed past them and motioned for them to follow.

Steve did, doing a quick translation for Paulo as he did so, seeing the man looked confused. "So what's the plan?" He asked after a moment.

"Well, you're gonna come and give statements, and we're gonna find out what the Hell is going on."


End file.
